To persevere or to pivot is a question that do-ers have been asking themselves since the beginning of time. It’s never a straight road when you are doing something new, blazing a trail, breaking a ceiling, or pushing boundaries, so it’s only natural to wonder whether to give up midway. How do you know whether to keep going or to give up?

Austin Shimek

The thought of giving up crosses my mind frequently. I get deep into a body of work from a race weekend or a photoshoot, and start refining the tiny details, it gets tiring. I look at the difficulty of working in a creative field, staying relevant, and continuing to build work that is exciting and unique. I end up asking myself, “What else would I do?” but I know that I can’t do anything else. Not like “Oh, I have no other skills,” but I don’t want to do anything else. Read More>>

Kat Nolte

I know what it feels like to give up—because I did. As a kid, I was constantly creating. I even wrote on a school assignment when I was around eight years old that I wanted to be an artist when I grew up. Art always came naturally to me—it was the one thing I felt quietly confident in, like it was woven into who I am. Read More>>

Catherine Glasgow

When deciding whether to keep going or to give up, I often imagine myself two different ways: as a child and as an old woman. When imagining myself as a child, I think back on all the huge dreams I had without the weight of “reality” to drag me down. I was so full of hope and so sure of myself that I would make all my dreams come true. Read More>>

Manami Moriyama

I’d keep going if I have a vision and the process of achieving it gives me a good feeling. Although it might not be easy, I believe the process should generally feel exciting when your are working towards something. Of course there may be some obstacles, but even that becomes your learning opportunity and you’d overcome when you have a vision and trying to achieve something. Read More>>