Being a quitter is perhaps the easiest thing that one can become. Giving up on one's dreams may seem like the only rational choice if one fails to succeed. However, there is no set timeline for achieving success. There will be many people you meet who will tell you give up on your dreams or that they do not believe you can succeed. You must do what makes you happy. The quickest way to ensure a lack of success in achieving your dreams is to not attempt to achieve your dreams at all.
Public schools were originally designed to train kids to become workers on the assembly line in factories. Today, these same schools train kids to become employees in large corporations. Just another face lost in a sea of employees. Whenever someone aspires to start their own company, people scoff at them. Being an entrepreneur can be one of the hardest and loneliest jobs because these people spend so much time alone on nights and weekends working on their businesses. They forgo social gatherings with friends to work on their businesses, and they are more often than not met their own friends and family who do not believe in them. I have met several entrepreneurs who were met with doubts from those around them, but these entrepreneurs refused to give up on their dreams and were able to make more than a comfortable living through their business.
On April 20, Tim Bergling, better known to the world as Avicii, passed away while in Muscat, Oman. Bergling, 28, was known to the world as a pioneer of electronic dance music (EDM). In 2011, Bergling released his hit single "Levels" which quickly rose to the top of charts and propelled him to the forefront. However, Bergling was not always a superstar pioneer of EDM.
In 2007, Bergling, who is Sweedish, posted a few songs he had created to a Sweedish messaging board asking for people to check out his music and give him feedback. After a month had passed, nobody had commented on his post. Bergling had posted another comment of a sad face due to zero response to his post. At that point, it would not be farfetched for Bergling to give up on his dream of being a musician. However, as we all know, he continued to make music and went on to become the musician we all love today. Had Bergling given up on his dream, we never would have had such hits like "Levels" and "Wake Me Up."
Van Gogh, who is known as one of the greatest painters of all time, had a very unsuccessful life. He died an unsuccessful and poor painter. He even battled with depression throughout his life. No matter what people said to him, he never gave up on his painting. Van Gogh, who died believing he was a failure as a painter, created iconic paintings such as "The Starry Night" and his self-portrait. He went on to have so much success after his death that there is even a museum dedicated to his work which can be found in Amsterdam.
This is not to say that one should choose to be poor and depressed over giving up their passions. One can choose to work a day job to make ends meet while working on their passion during nights and weekends. It is possible to take a few years to become successful like Tim Bergling, or it is even possible to become successful postmortem like Van Gogh.