Following his service as Prime Minister of Great Britain during the dark days of World War II, Winston Churchill was invited to speak at Harrow, his boyhood grammar school, from which he had been graduated some seventy years before. As he stood at the lectern, looking out at his young audience, he said, "Young men, never give up! Never give up! Never! Never! Never!" With that he sat down. The audience was stunned. The message was so brief. Yet, in this succinct message, the man who had kept England going in such difficult times was stating the philosophy of perseverance that had led to victory. It is a characteristic that we admire, and which we have been taught to emulate. But does it pertain to every situation we may encounter?

I heard about a woman golfer who finished last in the Shawn…