Digging Deep And Never Giving Up.

Digging deep and never giving up could well be the start of some profound life changing post. Probably not going to happen, so we'll just go with a more diluted one instead.

I was going to talk about networking but then this popped into my head and I'm just going with it. As many (or a few if I've misjudged reader engagement) of you might know, for the last few years I've been buying, fixing (with help) and selling older Jaguars, and a few other 'in between' vehicles.

It's never really been a huge money spinner, more akin to running a 'non-profit' and it took me over a year to get to the point where I had enough capital to buy the next one before I had sold the one I was working on. It was very much 'hand-to-mouth' in the early days. When I did get to those heady heights, my son bought a 'lemon' and I helped fund getting that particular disaster sorted, pretty much setting me back twelve months. Hey ho, that's life and all that. We do what we do.

Looking back, I do wonder what possessed me sometimes. December 2016 I bought a cheap, neglected Jaguar. Not been on the road for a year or more but it ran and was relatively straight for the age. The journey home took four hours instead of one, let's just say it wasn't a happy bunny. 'Ya pays ya money and ya takes ya chances.' Maybe I should have seen the writing on the wall then.

I won't bore you with all the details as much as they might make me reminisce wistfully, for you they might send you to sleep. Needless to say, some work was need to get it back on the road. Some of this I could do myself, the rest I left to those with the know-how. Within a couple of weeks it was all done. Running, repaired and ready to be sold. Yet, it wasn't finished with me just yet. A 'squeak' appeared on the journey home from the garage which turned out to be a seized water pump, no biggy, a mornings work and we're good to go again. I parked it on the drive and moved onto other things for a week.

One week later it was time to move some cars round and get the Jag ready for selling, just a clean and vacuum. Went to start it, nothing. Tried again and although the engine was pinning, there was nothing else. Zip, nada, zilch. Now had this happened when it was at the garage, I would have had the luxury of being able to utilize their expertise 'in situ'. As it was, I was on my own, it wasn't moving.

It took me five weeks to isolate the issue. None of the parts for these cars are readily available at your local Autostore. So I had to order a part, wait for it to arrive, fit it, find it still didn't work, rinse and repeat. I still have a box of spares that I accumulated as I was methodically working my way through all the possibles. It turned out to be a corroded 'pin' inside one of the connector plugs that went into the engine management computer.

I'm not sure what led me to find it, I think I had just run out of alternatives, all avenues had been explored.

More than once I had thought about throwing in the towel. Cutting my loses and running. I had already taken a couple of 'hits' and had I given up, I'm not sure whether I would have had the stomach to carry on. I was pretty naive and inexperienced, an ideal combination to just give up.

Through it all there was plenty of advice. "Yeah the same thing happened to me and it turned out to be ....." or "You should try this, that's what I'd do" All well-meaning and all had the potential of being right.

Nearly four years later and with enough minor catastrophes under my belt to write a book or two, I am no longer phased by such dilemmas. In all honesty, my outlook now is that there is always a solution. Problems are challenges that are there to be overcome.

That said, you only surpass them if you keep trying and never give up. Sometimes you have to dig deep, even when it seems futile and all you want to do is say 'That's it, I've had enough'

Somewhere, there is an answer to your particular problem, you just have to find it and that will only happen if you keep looking.