Never ever give up. The struggle is there to teach you a lesson before rewarding you.

Every successful person has endured their share of struggles and challenges.

Every unsuccessful person has endured their sare of struggles and challenges. The difference between the successful and unsuccessful is that the successful people never quit.

They just kept focussing on their dream and worked out a way to make it happen.

Way too many peole have struggled to make their dream happen, and quit short of their goal, sometimes only just a few steps away from achieving greatness.

Absolutely NOTHING that is worthwhile comes to us easily.

We have to work at it to make it happen and I have yet to meet an overnight success.

What you do meet, are successful people that have attained recognition for their achievements, but what is NOT told are the countless hours , the risks taken, the years of struggle and all the challenges faced before they achieve their overnight success.

There were so many challenges when I first started my business. Quitting would have been such an easy option back then, but not in my mind. I just kept knocking on doors, trying to make sales, day after day, week after week, month after month and year after year. I kept positive, kept my eyes and ears open to new opportunities. I just kept battling on. We managed to stay afloat and earn an income from the business, but not much more than what I would have earned as an employee working for an employer - considering all the risk, and putting our house on the linbe to fund the business, one would be forgiven for thinking I was crazy!

As it turned out, while running my business back in 1996, I caught up with a former work collegue at a breakfast meeting, who informed me that regulations were about to change in a particular industry, and that our existing customer base would have to scale up and purchase a specific piece of equipment in order to meet the new regulation.

As a result of that meeting, I travelled over to Germany for a week-long trade show (which followed shortly after) and I was in the hunt for such a piece of equipment that I could sell into my market.

The German trade show was huge, countless huge halls of exhibits, and each hall had and average of a 900 metres walk inside it (going up and down each aisle). I would guess that I walked 25km in a suit and leather shoes that week.

I spent 4 days walking up and down each aisle of each hall, and I did each hall twice - just to be sure I didn't miss anything.

At 3:30pm on the 4th day my feet were aching, I was exhausted, I was frustrated (because I was unable to locate a supplier of the specific equipment) and I was rather disillusioned.

I decided to jump on the shuttle bus outside the last hall, and head to the canteen hall to get a coffee before calling it quits for the trip, and heading back to my hotel to fly back home the next day.

As life would have it... at 3:30pm on that final day, tired and with throbbing feet, I got off the shuttle bus at the wrong stop! By the time I realised my error, the bus had already left. However, as it drove off, I noticed yet another hall across the street that I had missed!

In the official trade show map, the hall was marked as a lecture hall and not an exhibit hall.

I looked, and saw it had more exhibits, ones I had not seen.

I was tired, I had no more left in the tank, my feet hurt and I didn't want to walk through yet another hall. Iwas done!

However.... something inside me said: "Listen here dopey, you've come half way around the world to this show, You have spent all this time and effort, you have spent all this money, you have been into every other hall, what's one more?!"

Needless to say, I snapped out of my misery, and walked in.

Ten rows of stands, each row was 150m long and had stands on both sides.

I walked up the last row, and in the third last stand, I found exactly what I was looking for!

To cut a long story short, I got the exclusive distribution rights for the Australian and NZ region, and we have represented this range for over 25 very profitable years generating tens of millions of dollars in revenue.

The moral here.... I could have quit just metres away from achieveing the goal I set out to achieve. I was so close to quitting that day and going home because I was tired, frustrated, disillusioned and just wanted to go home.

I chose NOT to quit, I pushed against all that was telling me to go home, and kept walking and searching for the product in question. The reward finally came to me in the end and the result has been beyond my expectations.

NEVER EVER QUIT.

You must believe that every struggle is there to teach you a lesson.

Only once you learn that lesson will your reward will come.

My lesson on this day was to never ever quit, stay focussed and never give up.

When the Success Gods decide you have learnt your lesson and overcome the struggles they have set you, they will then reward you accordingly!

To be honest, I had already learned the lesson not to quit, I had learned that lesson years earlier - however, the Success Gods sometimes will retest you (I guess they need a laugh now and then, or maybe they want to really make sure you've got the lesson sorted), in any case, the lesson was certainly reinforced for me on that German trip! A lesson I have never forgotten

Again.... NEVER EVER QUIT.