Never give up on life.
Stay positive. Negative thoughts make you perform worse. You have to believe in yourself and tell yourself that it's okay if you miss something but fix it next time.
*Recognize what makes you unhappy and try to figure out why.
Beware of sappers, or people who don't like to see others get ahead. They are the people that come around in an attempt to assert control over you during one of these activities. For instance, let's say that someone sees you reading and then asks you to mow the lawn. Most people, to avoid argument, just go out and do what they are told, There are times however when that is a poor precedent to set. It says that whenever your task is enjoyment, anyone can come around and override that task. Not only can that lead to resentment, but it is also the beginning of habitual unhappiness.
"Believe in yourself", entire books can be summed up in those words... The "power of belief", or "power of prayer" or "placebo effect" are all words that have the same general meaning, and all can be scientifically demonstrated to have a real effect(positive or negative) on people's lives. Basically it is using one's imagination to manipulate oneself or the world around them, and the longer and more one believes something to be true the greater the effect and or likelihood. And also believe in others a little, allowing others to be free can sometimes free oneself.
Develop a non-defeatist attitude toward life, start looking at your life as you in control of everything, no matter how out of control your life truly is, pretend it's all up to you, use your imagination... no one is controlling your destiny you make your own destiny you are the master of you life, and everything depends on you to praise or blame. It is very common for people to unknowingly develop a defeatist attitude toward life and give up or say things like "it's all in god's hands", or it's genetics, or it's destiny, karma etc., or to have been belittled by others into believing there are things one can't do, it is easier to assume a defeatist attitude based on bad, unlucky, or inaccurate experiences and subconsciously and automatically assume we can do nothing so why try in the future, this is a good way to save needless effort that we would perceive to be wasted based on our experiences, it is learning, and it saves time and energy if this is the attitude one wants.
I agree that if you want a job with good opportunities you definitely need to keep yourself updated. But I think this more looks like idea of being entrepreneur or getting self employed rather than getting a job in some big org.
A couple of things can happen and it primarily depends on why the private company was buying the public company.
1) Reverse Takeover mentioned by Raysor above. In this case the private company is taking over the public company with the aim of taking itself public. The goal here is to streamline the process of going public by just including all the assets of the private company with those of the already listed company. In this case, the stock continues to trade (possibly at a premium depending on the terms of the merger) but the underlying business has changed possibly dramatically. Several airlines have gone public through reverse takeovers. For some reason, I also know that Frederick's of Hollywood went public this way (they have excellent annual reports).
2) The public company might be taken private. In this case, a stockholder of the public company is given cash for his stock. He actually doesn't have to sell (unlike comments from previous posters) but there is not really advantage in not selling. Since the company no longer completes all the filing requirements necessary to be listed, it will be delisted. Taking a company private is a good way of saving lots of legal and accounting expense and was particularly popular in the wake of Sarbanes-Oxley a few years back that increased these requirements.