This is a collection of videos and quotes I have found helpful whenever I felt like giving up what I was doing. Not that I’ve followed all of them all the time; but I have tried, and still am.

On Being Passionate About What You’re Doing

Here’s Steve Jobs (RIP) talking about why you need to love what you’re doing. To get to the top of your field (regardless of the field), you need to continue doing it “over a sustained period of time”. And that’s hard no matter what you’re doing. If you don’t love it, though, “any rational person would give up,” he says. And if you give up early, you’ll never get to the top 1% of your field. In a nutshell, choose something you love doing, otherwise, you’ll probably end up having a mediocre career in your respected field.


On Managing Stress

“Stress comes from not taking action over something that you have some control over”, says the former CEO of Amazon, Jeff Bezos. I actually find this to be very true, at least in my life. When I look back at my most stressful moments, I can see that there was something I could be doing but refused to do, and it contributed to my stress level and anxiety. Now, having watched this interview a few times, I try to find that little something that I can do to resolve the issue whenever I’m under stress. And as Bezos said, it doesn’t have to be a big step; it could be the smallest step possible, but the fact that I’m taking it makes me feel better. If I’m stressed out about an approaching deadline and feel like I can’t meet it, I just start doing the thing I’m supposed to do. If I’m stressed out about a number of emails I haven’t read or responded to, I just open up the first one and reply to it.


On Making Mistakes, Yet Not Giving Up

This must be my favourite music video of all time. It’s from the animated movie Zootopia. If you haven’t seen it, it’s about a young rabbit who wants to become a police officer. This is against the status quo: no rabbit has ever been accepted as a police officer before. Yet, Judy Hopps (the rabbit), tries her best, and after making many many mistakes, and after failing several times, she becomes a police officer–and a pretty damn good one at that. The song is all about having perseverance in what you’re doing, and not being afraid of making mistakes. “I keep falling down, I keep on hitting the ground, but I always get up now to see what’s next.” I, myself, make mistakes all the time and on a daily basis. Yet, that’s how we learn, right? Own your mistakes and keep on making them. Remember that they’re the sign that you’re trying and growing.


Speaking on making mistakes and failing, yet not giving up, I’ve also found this quote from the Irish novelist Samuel Beckett to be very helpful. It doesn’t matter if you fail; what matters is to continue and try again, and fail better, until you succeed. This is also very true about me. Hardly a day goes by that I don’t fail at doing something. Yet, I always remember this quote–I actually have a framed version of this quote on my desk at home. I try again, fail better, try again, fail better, until I succeed.

beckett

On Doing What’s Necessary Against The Odds

This is, without a doubt, my favourite scene of all time. In case you haven’t seen Interstellar, you may want to skip to the next section as I’m about to do a little spoiling. Cooper, a mechanical engineer and an ex-NASA pilot, agrees to go on an expedition to find another planet for human beings to settle on as the Earth is reaching its final days. During the mission, a selfish astronaut tries to flee with the Endurance spacecraft and leave his colleagues behind. However, he blows up one wing instead (and dies, of course). In this scene, Cooper, whose love for his daughter transcends everything else, docks the shuttle to the Endurance against all odds, not because it’s easy and straightforward, or even sane; but because it’s necessary. It’s necessary because his goal is to see his daughter again. No obstacle–including the one in the scene–is going to stop him.

Not that I ever got to pilot anything, but the scene always gives me goosebumps. And I know there’s a lot of Hollywood involved here, but that doesn’t make it less valuable. If I think something’s necessary to do, I’ll do it, no matter how impossible it looks. And I’ve failed at a lot of them, to tell you the truth, but succeeded at a few too.


Speaking of doing what needs to be done, here’s Achilles, the legendary warrior, giving advice to Zagreus, the prince of the Underworld: “Hold back your fear”. It’s from this game I like a lot named Hades. Zagreus, the son of Hades, tries to escape the Underworld and reunite with his mother. During his attempts to escape, Achilles helps him with advice about war and weapons. At one point, Zagreus decides to reciprocate and do something for Achilles. Something that’s dangerous, but needs to be done. Zagreus is afraid and fears something bad will happen, although deep down he knows he should do it. “Fear is for the weak,” says Achilles to Zagreus on several occasions during the game. Here’s one of those occasions.


On Doing Your Best Even if Nobody Believes in You

Data, a Starfleet officer–and an Android–takes command of a vessel. This is the first time an Android gets promoted to such a rank. As you would expect, no one on the vessel, especially the first commander, believes this is a good idea. However, none of this drama affects Data’s resolution to give the job his all. He basically doesn’t give a damn about what others think of him, as long as they follow his orders.

This is really hard to achieve: to be impervious to what people think and say about you. And to be fair, Data is not a human being; he’s an Android and therefore, bereft of any human emotion, including the need for others’ approval. However, I have found Data’s mindset to be very helpful. There comes a time for all of us when we’re tasked to do things no one believes we can. Maybe you’re the youngest member of a team (which happened to me a couple of times), or the first to reach a level given your gender or race. But no one knows us better than we do. No matter how others look at us–negative or positive–we should always try to do our best. Speaking from experience, if you give something all it takes, there’s a very high chance you’ll get it done superbly.

By the way, Data does a great job at the end and saves a lot of lives; human lives!