This weekend I was an extra in a short film our 16-year old granddaughter, Lindsey Whitus, wrote, produced and directed, The Sins of Man. My role was to open a door, close it, pause for 10-second count then walk forward.
The first take I flubbed opening the door. The second take I failed to close the door firmly and it blew open. The third and forth takes I forgot to count to 10.
The aide to the assistant director said, “Maybe we should take grand pop out of the scene and get a younger person to do it.”
Only because my granddaughter was the director did I get to try one more time and I nailed it. When the film is edited, however, my part may be cut.
All of us are cut from time to time. We don’t get the role; we don’t make the team; we don’t get a prom date; we don’t get in the college we wanted; we don’t get the job; we don’t get the promotion; we don’t find a publisher for our manuscript.
I once had my book, Complete Mental Health, rejected 136 times before I found a publisher, WW Norton…. And then the book flopped. It didn’t sell.
All of us fail. All are cut. All of us lose. All are rejected. Life is difficult.
Perseverance is the key to overcoming defeat. During WW II German bombing pulverized England. Many wanted to surrender. Winston Churchill inspired Great Britain to keep fighting with a series of speeches. One of the most memorable is the following phrase:
Never give up; never give up, never, never, never, never in nothing, great or small, large or petty. Never give in except to convictions or honor and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of [rejection].
Thomas Edison the inventor of the phonograph, film, the movie camera and the recipient of 1,093 patents failed to find over 1,000 fibers before discovering the tungsten wire filament for the light bulb that lit up the world. Edison said:
The greatest weakness is giving up. The most certain way to success is to try one more time.