It seems like simple and obvious advice, but here’s my advice for today: Don’t give up. I was recently in the presence of a man who has given up. Life has dealt him a great many blows. He’s living in a nursing home. He’s been plagued with diseases that have his body and mind whittled down to a fraction of his former self. In his day he was active, and agile, and very, very smart.

But now he has given up. You can see it in his eyes and sense it in his demeanor. I can’t say that I blame him. I hurt for him and hope for him. His life is a far cry from what it once was. I feel helpless when I’m in his presence. I want to tell him not to give up, and I want him to heed the advice with all his heart and have him translate it to his weak limbs.

May it never be said of me that I have given up. And here’s some encouragement that it never be said of you, either. There is to much to learn. There are too many opportunities. Technology has given us opportunity after opportunity to grow, and discover, and even draw or increase income. Information is exploding minute by minute and day by day. And we have access to much of it with just a keystroke or two.

I have recently been avidly listening to a podcast called “EOFire” (Entrepreneur on Fire). I am fascinated by each episode hosted by John Lee Dumas. Dumas interviews wildly successful entrepreneurs seven days a week. Each day he asks the same series of questions to his guest. One question he asks each day is:

What was your lowest entrepreneurial moment?

You should hear the stories. Successful entrepreneurs talk about the times when people swindled them, or they were down to their last dollars, or they had to close down a business. But in every single case the entrepreneur goes on to tell the story of how they didn’t give up. They kept pressing on. If one business failed they went ahead and started another. They knew they had it in them. They knew they could be successful.

One man was doing door-to-door multi-level marketing in Utah. He didn’t make one single sale. He finally realized that his problem was that he only cared about himself and about making money. He didn’t care at all about his customers or what their needs or desires were. So he quit his door-to-door sales and went into a business that focused on the customer. He kept plugging, and pushing, and going until he turned a profit and began to operate an extremely successful business.

There is always something you can do each and every day to work toward your goal. Start small. Keep plugging. Keep going. Don’t stop. Don’t let a day go by without doing something that will get you one step closer to where you want to be.

Don’t.

Give.

Up.

What would be your advice to someone who feels as though they want to give up?