To pivot or to persevere? Or more bluntly – to give up or to not to give up? This is a haunting question, a question that has ramifications far after an answer has been chosen and it’s also a question that almost everyone in our community has had to face at one time or another. How do you know when to give up and when to keep trying?

Shannon Fernando

I’ve learned to ask a different question — not ‘should I keep going?’ but ‘who is depending on me to?’ The women I work with in Ethiopia, Kenya, and South Sudan don’t have the luxury of giving up. Read more>>

ANGELA HALL

It is a question I am often asked, and the answer begins with my story. When people hear my journey, they don’t just understand it—they feel it. They see the trauma, the heartbreak, the unimaginable losses, but they also see the blessings that emerged from the pain. My story is one of grief, faith, survival, and purpose. I am a two-time widow. Read more>>

Bryant Massingale

You know it is time to keep going when the vision inside your head is louder than the chaos of your current environment. Read more>>

Jessica Cagatay

For me, it comes down to what’s actually driving the doubt. When you’re in it, you’re never going to feel 100% certain either way. So I stopped waiting for clarity and started paying attention to the source of the uncertainty. The moments I wanted to quit were almost never about the work itself. Read more>>

Nicole Welch

One thing I’ve learned is that there’s a difference between something being challenging and something that may no longer being aligned. Working in production taught me that almost everything worth building comes with stress, long hours, uncertainty, and moments where you question yourself. If I gave up every time something got difficult, I never would’ve excelled in my career. Read more>>

Gilbert Gill Chris

I don’t think I’ve ever looked at stand-up as something I could quit. I’ve wanted to quit on certain nights, but comedy kind of follows you everywhere — home, the boring 9-to-5, even ordering chicken online. Even when I’m not on stage, I’m watching people, thinking of ideas, and finding weird things funny. I think that’s how I know I’m supposed to keep doing it. Read more>>

Kelly Shoul

In the early years of starting my own business, I was struggling with if I should give up, or keep going. It was my dream to own my own photography business, and to turn it into a successful career. It wasn’t going as well as i’d hope. My bookings weren’t quite there. Read more>>

Gunnar Garrett Jr.

I don’t think there’s a distinct event, but more of a prompting whether or not you should keep going or give up. And even saying give up, seems like a negative annotation, when really it’s just a cost analysis. At some point when I’m working on a new venture, I’ll hit a point where the going gets rough. Read more>>

Chris Kerrigan

I think that once you fully get into a thing where you’re making art mostly for yourself, this becomes very easy: you should give up when you’re not enjoying it anymore. Read more>>