Once upon a time there was a young man named Pete Becker. You may have heard of him. He was the software developer who created MOS 865, a suite of productivity software used by every office in the world. His combined technical expertise and knack for business made him a multi-millionaire by the time he was thirty.

Now, your average ordinary Joe would be happy with that kind of life. Beyond happy. But Pete was no ordinary Joe. Because in spite of all his conquests, he also wanted to become the Ultimate Fighting Champion.

So he hired a ring designer and invested fifty thousand dollars on a gym. He hired Hoshi, one of the world’s best personal trainers. He practiced, conditioned, and worked out every day. Hard. Eventually he landed a professional bout where he faced off against UFC champion Tank Abbott.

In spite of all his training and preparation, Pete lost. He lost bad. Like, not even close bad. The fight was over in less than a minute. It was clear that Pete was, in every sense of the phrase, out of his league.

After the fight he met up with his girlfriend back in the training room. She assumed that he’d gotten the bug out of his system and would leave fighting behind. (Who wouldn’t think that?) But she was wrong. In spite of the odds against Pete and his clear lack of talent, he quietly replied to her plea with “I’ve got to do this.”

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Perseverance. Determination. Tenacity. Some of the undisputed traits of success. Giving up is wrong. In fact, it’s not just wrong, it’s about the worst thing you can do. We learn about it from a very young age. Our parents, mentors, heroes — basically everyone — they’ve all told us that giving up is not an option. Think of all the sayings and phrases and quotes we have on the topic:

“Winners never quit and quitters never win.” — Vince Lombardi

“When the going gets tough, the tough get going.” — Joseph P. Kennedy

“Never give up! Never surrender!” — Commander Peter Quincy Taggart

“It’s supposed to be hard. If it wasn’t hard everyone would do it. The hard is what makes it great.” — Jimmy Dugan

“Only morons quit! And even though you’re the biggest moron in this school, you will not quit, moron!” — My high school home room teacher

Why is this? Well, clearly it’s just to make one feel bad about oneself. If inspirational phrases didn’t give us the opportunity to stop and think about how little we’ve accomplished, why even have them? Haha. Just kidding.

I think the real answer is: nothing ever got done by quitting. I mean, on a global, civilization-wide scale. What would the world be like if everyone gave up before the wheel was invented? Or the compass? Clocks? The printing press? Harnessing electricity? And let’s not overlook the greatest invention ever: indoor plumbing?

It’s drilled into our heads at every opportunity. If you stick with something, if you just “hang in there” (and never forgot that success is rarely a straight line) you will change the world. Or you’ll get a job. Or you’ll pass a test. Or maybe even just fix some toast in the morning. But if you quit? Oh, my friend, you are doomed.

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An important question always seems to get left out of this equation: what if you simply can’t do it? Not as in: you’re lazy, or you let them get the best of you, or you didn’t stand up after that last knockdown. What if, like Pete Becker, you just can’t do it? At some point isn’t the worst thing you could do would be: not quitting?

Let’s take the case of a hypothetical young man whose lifelong dream is to build a rocket ship out of egg cartons, don a scuba mask, and fly to Saturn? (“Stick with it! Hang in there, kid! You can do it if you put your mind to it!”)

Or a young woman who decides her lifelong dream is to take a plastic spoon from Wendy’s and dig a hole straight through the center of the earth and pop out in Australia? (“Follow your heart, little lady! Don’t let anyone put you down! You are powerful!”)

Wouldn’t any sane person deem that kind of positive encouragement wrong? Would you not be serving someone better by saying, “Hey, this isn’t giving up. This is just accepting reality.”

Accepting reality.

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The astute reader may already see where this blorg poast is heading. I’m not talking about space-boy or mining-girl. I’m not even talking about Monica’s erstwhile boyfriend Pete. I’m talking about me.

For whatever reason, back in the early 1990s, I got it in my head that I could write a good novel. I can’t. After some twenty-five-plus years of digging with my plastic Wendy’s spoon, I’ve made it a full inch toward my eight-thousand-mile goal. Having an idea for a book is the easiest thing in the world. Turning that into a gripping, page-turning tale, it turns out, takes a little more innate ability.

Am I giving up? Sure feels like it. But when I step back to a safe distance, it really feels more like pruning a tree. I mean, think about pruning. Why do we cut dead, odd, or useless branches off a healthy tree? Easy answer. Because everyone wins. We can eliminate the danger of a dead branch falling and hurting someone. We can give the rest of the tree more energy to grow. And sometimes it just improves the view. I don’t know about you, but those all seem like really great benefits.

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This is the point where I’m supposed to write, “So that’s that! Thanks for tuning in everyone!” However, as the Knights Who Say Ni once said, “There is one small problem!” My story isn’t over. Tune in next time for part two.