“Many of life’s
failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when
they gave up.” –Thomas Edison
Take the case of John Paul Jones an American war hero who
faced an obvious defeat at sea during the American war of independence.
Surrounded by the Royal Navy, with his ship listing, he was outmanned,
outgunned and outmaneuvered. Faced with this grim situation, he is reported to
have responded when called upon to surrender, “I have not yet begun to fight.”
He fought on and won and became another American folk hero.
Shortly before the Falklands war with Argentina in 1982, the
then British Prime Minister Mrs. Margaret Thatcher was asked by a journalist
what will happen in case of failure. At this time, the British task-force was
already half-way across the Atlantic on its way to war. Mrs. Thatcher replied,
“Failure? Remember what Queen Victoria once said, failure? The possibility does
not exist.” History records that the British defeated the Argentines within
three months and retained the effective control of the disputed Islands.
