To pivot or to persevere? Or more bluntly – to give up or to not to give up? This is a haunting question, a question that has ramifications far after an answer has been chosen and it’s also a question that almost everyone in our community has had to face at one time or another. How do you know when to give up and when to keep trying?

Anthony Grant | Actor & Creative

First, I want to say that I truly think that the idea of ‘giving up’ gets a bad reputation. It immediately gets associated with being a quitter and I don’t currently know anyone who would enjoy the idea of being looked at that way. Which is unfortunate, because I think knowing when to give up is both crucial to growth and being able to know when to potentially pivot towards something else. Read more>>

Abre Camino Collective Vanessa Garcia/Victoria Collado | Radical Storytelling Company

There are so many moments when you want to give up. When you really think: wow, are we going to be able to do this? This giant thing we’ve set our minds and hearts and souls to? When there’s no money, no funding, everybody’s disappeared because it got hard, when no one, not even those that say they are committed really are, when they are not putting their everything in and you’re exhausted. Just wiped out from sleepless nights and days out in the field and immersed in research and when deals fall through. When all of that happens, you sometimes feel like: Where is there to go? Read more>>

Sara Broers | Travel Blogger

I truly believe if you are passionate about something, it’s important to keep going. Often times when we start something it takes a while for things to catch on with others. The key is to keep going and not give up. If you believe you have exhausted all of your possibilities for something you are passionate about, it’s probably time to hang it up and give the key to someone else. Read more>>

Arianna Marajh | Candle Maker & Artist

Knowing whether to give up or keep going depends solely on how bad you want something. It’s something you become obsessed with. I like to call it “the healthy obsession”. Days would go by that I would just be stuck on my phone (Not on Tik Tok) but researching the best candles, what’s in candles that make them harmful? best wicks?, What candle wax are best for animals?. I grew up with the saying “Rome wasn’t built in one day”. Damn right it was not. Like Rome, Aiiryco is just the name of my business. Read more>>

Kara Lilly | Elite Athlete, Writer, Entrepreneur

I never give up. Ever. Once you give up once, you open a door to giving up in the future, and that’s an unacceptable mental habit to form. You can never afford to make it “like you” to quit. The bigger question is: what is the difference between quitting and stopping? While quitting is never acceptable under any circumstance, stopping is often the wise move. Stopping is what you do when the risks of going further outweigh the potential rewards, like when you injure yourself and pushing through will only make the injury worse. Or, when you are in conflict with someone and the best move is to take a time out to allow everyone to calm down. Read more>>

Yezmin Soliz | Dj

Never give up! There will be high highs and low lows in every profession and all aspects of life, the most important is to enjoy the highs and LEARN from the lows but NEVER EVER give up! Read more>>

ilikebloo | Musician

The thing that motivates me to keep going everyday is fun. If I don’t feel like I’m having fun with whatever is at hand I just stop. That’s the only thing that keeps the music sounding original too. Anytime I’ve gone into a creative space with outside forces weighing in on my head (money, recognition, etc) the music just sucks. The only time I’m able to make something I enjoy is when I’m having fun. Because of that, I try to treat every aspect of my life the same exact way. When I wake up, the first thing I think about is how to have the most fun. As long as I feel giddy about whatever I’m doing, I won’t even think about giving up. Read more>>