TATTOO ARTIST: Defeat 'or' Victory

Have you ever been so excited about a project or idea that you could hardly stand yourself?  I was and still am.  As you know I have a non- profit organization that is for para-medical tattooing, in other words I do scar camouflage for burn or accident victims, I tattoo eyebrows in tiny little hairstrokes for someone with alopecia or that has gone thru chemo, restoration of areola / nipple for individuals having had a mastectomy, restoration of a vermillion border for cleft lip and the list could go on.  The services are extremely expensive but with the non-profit organization that could be funded by grants and donations, clients would be charged little to nothing. I have years and years(+) of advanced training. I felt in my heart that this is good and right and still do. If you could only see and feel what this service does for one's whole being.
Two years ago I applied for my first grant: declined, second grant: declined and it continues. But...I continue with my work for 4 hours and sometimes more per day.  Then one day you think to yourself, I'm getting poor trying to do good, you think "Defeat". You think "I should just give up and get a real job". But in my heart I know how I can change a person's life and therefore changing mine: "Victory" ! When anything feels this good and right in your heart, never give up.  Keep reaching, searching, trying, trusting and beleiving and you will get there. 
  The response I get from individuals concerning donations is that they think this is one of the best and kindess services they have ever heard of but they could never give money to tattooing.  I once spoke to an individual with the grant association where I had applied, and he asked me if my service would help a child graduate highschool, I thought about it for  a minute and replied yes, it would. We all know children can be unkind at times. I know this first hand as I have polio in my right leg since the age of  five weeks old.  So for a child to go thru high school with no eyebrows or a 'funny' looking lip, yes, that can affect their self-confidence or self-esteem and therefore their learning ability. At that point the man just laughed. He did tell me that my grant was one to the best written grants he had ever read.
My advise: Never give up!  When you can generate such a profound  difference in another's life, you have found Victory.