Do You Give Up when the Doors are Closing and the Bus is Driving off?

After nearly a year of being dependent on Transport for London alongside the many million other Londoners I’ve have definitely noticed   the absolute  determination to catch the bus or the train, because waiting up to 10 minutes for the next one just simply isn’t an option (and I say that only half sarcastically – but the fast-paced lifestyle here isn’t my point).

I’ve observed different people at different times judging at what point they realise they are not going to get on that bus/train:

Situation 1. You see it pull up to the stop and you’re still a good distance away, you could run and maybe catch it but it’s probable that you would still miss it and then you would have looked like a fool in front of everyone, so you give up and accept that you’re not going to make it…the problem with that is that it might then spend a long time at the stop, causing you to regret your decision because if you’d run you definitely would have made it!

Situation  2: You arrive at the stop just as the doors are closing and it’s about to drive off…

    a) do you accept that you’ve missed it?

OR

    b) do you try to jump through the doors just in time, or chase after the bus and bang on the door pleading with the driver to let you on?

At what point do you give up? I’ve discovered that the key is confidence in any eventuality; confidence to believe in your decision to wait, confidence to run like a fool in front of everyone, confidence that you’re not going to get crushed by the closing doors, confidence that the driver will let you on and above all confidence to hold you head up high even though despite your best efforts you failed. 

I’m confident that those of you reading this will know that I’m ‘metaphorically inclined’ and will therefore understand that I am not merely commenting on the manner or means that Londoners catch public transport, but rather on the way that we ALL go through life when we face the decision of whether to give up or continue the fight or the race to the very end, and whatever our decision do we have the confidence to believe fully in our conviction?