Chances are, someone else was in a similarly hopeless-seeming situation as you not too long ago. Perhaps the only reason you haven’t heard their story is because they chose to quit.
Sometimes, stubbornness is the sole differentiator. There are plenty of Italian restaurants in Munich, and most of them do fine. There are lots of startups offering the same goods and services. The pie is usually big enough — maybe not for everyone, but sure enough for everyone who’s willing to persist.
Our cause is rarely truly lost. Often, it’s our energy giving way. If you can reach deep inside yourself and pull up some more of that fire that incessantly burns in there forever, you can likely make it to the other side.
The good kind of stubbornness is doubling down on the right things when others walk away — and it might be the only difference between getting washed away and being one of the few left standing at the end of the storm.