It’s tempting to give up and retreat when things get hard.
When business slows down we must not be swallowed up in sorrow that things aren’t as good right now as six months ago. This drains us of the optimism and energy needed to press on effectively.
The difficult part about encouraging another person to pick up and keep running forward, to keep making efforts to improve, to ignore the flaws of those around them and fix the flaws in themself, is that it must be believed by the person themself.
You can’t force it to happen. It’s a bit of a game of hope and usually, it is a failure.
So often it fails because we live in a very self-centered society. Some might even argue that the whole world suffers from this plague.
Those in the process of giving up will often spend immense energy defending why it’s the good and proper thing to do. There is typically no arguing with them. They have made up their mind that this is the best way to survive. It’s the safe route and therefore the best route.
But the truth is, they’ve given up already and the work left to do is the work of convincing themself that it’s actually the best thing to do.
It’s hard to watch, but at least you can observe and take lessons to apply in your own life, business, and relationships.