Have you ever pursued a significant project, despite your belief it will fail?

Sometimes I am amazed at other people’s belief in their own capabilities. Supposedly this belief helps make them successful.

In comparison, I doubt all the time, and yet…. and yet… sometimes I still get involved in the project. Ah, who am I kidding. I always do. I’ve been tilting at windmills since I was 22. I think at the beginning, I believed I could succeed, but for a while now, I’ve known it was hopeless.

These projects include things like passing the equal rights amendment, fighting for clean water, fighting for working folks, and most recently, working to get a universal coverage, tax-financed single-payer health system instituted in the US. God help me. On the personal side, it has included things like trying to write stories or a novel. That’s a bit harder, because, while I don’t believe I have a chance of getting it published, I will not be able to live with myself if I don’t do it.

What about you? What was your windmill, you Sancho Panza’s and Don Quixote’s? How did you fare? What kept you going? Did you succeed? If you failed, was it worth it?