Sometimes, our goals feel impossibly far away.
The finish line is nowhere in sight.
Doubt creeps in…
“Maybe it’s time to quit.”
Sound familiar?
Particularly for entrepreneurs and leaders…
We face uncertainty every day.
We invest time, energy, and resources into a vision…
Yet progress can feel agonizingly slow.
And there plenty of losses and setbacks along the way.
But what if we’re almost there?
What if success is just beyond the next conversation, the next pitch, the next iteration, the next product?
So many times in business, we’re far closer than we realize—but the lack of visible results convinces us otherwise.
History is filled with stories of individuals and companies who nearly gave up…
Only to discover they were on the edge of a breakthrough.
Here are five examples to remind us that sometimes, we’re closer than we think.
Even if it doesn’t feel like it.
1) The Swimmer Who Stopped Too Soon
In 1952, Florence Chadwick set out to swim 26 miles between California and Catalina Island.
The water was bitterly cold, and thick fog obscured the horizon.
After hours of exhaustion, she couldn’t see the shore—so she gave up and got into the boat.
Minutes later, she realized the truth: she had stopped just a mile from the beach.
She was so close…
But because she couldn’t see it, she let the fatigue win.
The happy ending?
She tried again 2 months later.
And though the same fog obscured her view…
She completed the swim.
She had learned not to be deterred.
2) Three Feet from Gold
Napoleon Hill told the story of a man named R. U. Darby who invested everything in a mining operation during the Gold Rush.
He found a little gold…
But then hit a dry stretch.
He gave up, sold his equipment, and walked away.
The new owner brought in an expert, who discovered something Darby never realized: the gold vein was just three feet from where he’d stopped.
A little more digging, and it was a fortune.
But he quit too soon.
3) The Billion-Dollar Mistake
EMC, the data storage giant, almost never happened.
It was 1979.
Richard Egan and Roger Marino were hustling to get their company off the ground.
They needed funding, and a venture capital firm showed interest.
Things were looking good.
Then, at the last minute, the investors backed out. They didn’t see the potential. They thought EMC wouldn’t make it.
Egan and Marino didn’t quit.
They bootstrapped, scrapped, and clawed their way forward.
Their persistence paid off.
EMC became a powerhouse in data storage, pioneering revolutionary technology that transformed the industry.
Fast forward to 2016…
Dell acquired EMC for a staggering $67 billion.
That early VC firm? They missed out on one of the biggest tech paydays in history.
Walking away too soon can cost more than we imagine.
4) J.K. Rowling’s Twelfth Rejection
Before Harry Potter became a phenomenon, J.K. Rowling sent her manuscript to 12 publishers.
Every single one rejected it.
Then, Bloomsbury took a chance—because the chairman’s 8-year-old daughter read it and insisted it was great.
The moment of breakthrough was that close.
If Rowling had quit after the last rejection…
The world would have never known Harry Potter.
5) Apple’s Near Collapse
In 1997, Apple was circling the drain.
The company was 90 days from bankruptcy…
Executives were flailing…
The board was out of ideas.
But then they brought back Steve Jobs.
He cut the dead weight, launched the iMac, and changed Apple’s fate.
If Apple had given up in 1997, there would be no iPhone, no Mac resurgence—nothing.
The turnaround was right there.
Don’t Give Up
The lesson? We don’t always know how close we are.
It might feel like failure is inevitable. It might feel like quitting is the only option.
But sometimes, we’re just three feet from gold.
So let’s keep going.
