A week ago, my husband and I took our son for a haircut. We were prepared for the usual meltdown. I tried positive thinking and affirmations but it didn’t work.

My son hates haircuts. He starts howling the moment the hairdresser puts the cloth around his shoulders. He did the same thing this time too. He flung the cloth aside, started howling, threw his head back, arched his spine and tried to get off my husband’s lap who was sitting in the chair, holding him.

I don’t know what we feed him but he is surprisingly strong.

The two of us just about managed to hold on to him with my husband pinning his arms down and I holding his head in a tight grip. The haircut took about 15 minutes – definitely the longest 15 minutes of our life. We ended up with a decent haircut (barring a small patch that was missed due to all the drama) and lots of hair over all 3 of us.

Now to the point of this story – throughout this ordeal, my son kept crying. Many a times, he would be sniffing softly, eyes closed, leaning into my husband, face covered with tears, snot and hair and we would be lulled into thinking he has given up fighting. Suddenly he would rear up and try to leap out of the chair. And he kept doing this throughout.

I was filled with admiration – what spirit he has. He didn’t give up. He kept fighting. He didn’t accept defeat. And this is the spirit we entrepreneurs need. Keep moving forward despite the roadblocks, the dead ends, the rejections, the curmudgeonly clients.

I thought this was just another cliché but now I know it to be true – you lose only when you give up.