Stick-to-itiveness
Dec 30 2022
My high school football coach
— a granite faced, marine-cut mesomorph
with a big black whistle
permanently dangling from his neck —
did not tolerate quitters.
No one does.
It's unbecoming
to admit defeat.
What we truly admire
is grit
commitment
stick-to-itiveness.
Even when we're wrong.
Even though we know
sunk cost is a fallacy.
Even when cutting losses
to reinvest.
Even when quitting
a bad job
worse marriage
cigarettes
only make sense.
Even when you're slowly dying
of unhappiness.
The consequence
of a bad decision
as a fresh-faced kid,
one, among the many you made
when you were so sure of yourself
and had nothing to learn.
It was only when they were carrying me off
with a broken arm and seeing stars
did the thought come to me;
I didn't like football,
and why was I trying
to be someone I’m not?
He'd scowl at me, passing in the hall.
I'd smile back;
a happy quitter,
all my limbs intact.
This episode appeared a long time ago on the Freakonomics podcast. Since then, it has continued to stick with me. The upside of quitting. Even though change is hard, inertia strong, and our aversion to loss makes it hard to write-off the sunk costs — even though they're never coming back either way!
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