I like that the latest Martian rover is called Perseverance. Resilience and resourcefulness and the sheer ability to hang in there while you pivot and increment, reengineer and reinvent and reimagine and rescale is a very valuable and noble skill.

“Never give up , never surrender” was a payoff line of a Star Trek spoof but is actually very valuable advice.

This does not mean that you should not shut up shop, can a product or resign a client or a job. Those are just pivots in life and are not fatal . You may be unemployed today but could pivot your career tomorrow. Your skills may be redundant today but you could upskill tomorrow. Your business may be irrelevant today but you could be in a startup tomorrow. You may be demoted today but could be in a new more senior role elsewhere tomorrow.

What happens to you is life. It’s not personal. It means that you should not give up inside you. You should be ready to restart again anew if you need to.

A tree may die but it’s seed lives on. Ever wonder why James Bond movies have names like:

Die another day
No time to die
Never say never again
Tomorrow never dies
The world is not enough

The ability to persist in the face of insurmountable odds is a critical survival skill.