A Winner Never Quits?
by Matthew Arnold Stern
This speech won at the Area F-4 International Speech contest on March 24,
2007.
A winner never quits, and a quitter never wins. Do you agree with that
statement?
My son recently quit baseball. That was a tough one for me, because I enjoyed
participating in it with him. I was a coach, a manager, a board member, and the league's secretary. The problem was that I was enjoying my
son's baseball experience more than he did. At the start of this season, he
said, "Dad, I really don't have it in my heart to play baseball right now. I just
want to quit."
I am also a believer in a "winner never quits," but I'm a bigger believer
that parents shouldn't force their kids into activities that they don't want to
do. I let him quit, but I was very disappointed.
Then, I thought about the times when I quit.
When I was a kid, my thing was Scouting. I started as a Cub Scout, made my
way through Webelos, and then I joined a Boy Scout troop with a dedicated
Scoutmaster. Unfortunately, he was dedicated to furthering the Scouting
experience for his sons and their friends at the expense of everyone else. Guess
where I sat in that circle.
What was even worse was that dads were expected to participate, but mine
wasn't around any more. My dad cheated on my mom. And with my parents going
through a divorce, Scouting didn't seem so important any more. So, I quit.
I was out of Scouting for about a year when my brother, who was about to move
up to Boy Scouts, learned about a troop that was supposed to be better. I
decided to give Scouting another try. Two years later, I earned my Eagle Scout,
the highest award in Scouting. I know that I wouldn't have been able
to accomplish this in my old troop.
Let's move ahead a few years when I went off to college. I went to UCLA, home
of the Final Four Bruins! (We were also in the NCAA tournament when I was there.)
I was proud to go to UCLA, but things began to change. Tuition went up, and the financial aid I
depended on disappeared. I couldn't afford to go to UCLA anymore. So, I quit
UCLA and went to a less expensive college, Cal State Northridge.
Northridge didn't just save me money; it saved my college career. They had
night classes so that I could get a better paying job during the day. Instead of
500-student lecture halls, there were classes where I could interact with my
professors. Some of them became my mentors. In 1985, I graduated Summa Cum
Laude.
Now, let's move ahead to recent times. Four years ago, the company where I
worked had a merger of departments. They laid off my boss, someone who had
brought me to that company and who was and still is a personal friend. They assigned me
to this other manager. This is someone who had seven people leave her department within four years.
The economy was rough then, and some of my
colleagues in my field had been unemployed for two years. I was determined to
make this situation work. Unfortunately, as my coworkers later reported to me,
this manager was equally determined for me to fail.
I soon found myself in a situation where I had to quit or my manager would
find a way to get rid of me. Even though I didn't have another job lined up, I
resigned. When I told my family this, my daughter, who was ten at the time,
cheered, "Hurray, Daddy! You're a hero! You didn't chicken out!"
Two months later, I really became a hero. I found a new job at the company
where I'm working at now. I really enjoy this position. I'm learning about new
technology and an exciting new system for project development. I wouldn't have
experienced these things if I had managed to stay at my old company.
A winner never quits? Sometimes, you have to quit. You may be in a no-win
situation or circumstances may force you to quit.
A quitter never wins? Every time I quit, it freed space in my life for
something better and helped me regain passion that I had lost. I found the
troop where I earned my Eagle Scout, the university where I graduated with
honors, and a job I enjoy.
By quitting baseball, my son reminded me of something very important: Winners
do quit, and quitting can help us to win.
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