Did you know that Thomas Edison invented 1,500 ways how not to make a light bulb? Or that some kid called Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team in his sophomore year? Or how about that politician Abraham what was it Lincoln? who lost several political races before being elected President? These are all people that history considers to be the examples of the pinnacle of success in their respective fields yet they all failed miserably at times. So why didn’t they just give up?
Well fortunately for us they all had one thing in common, they all understood that you can learn from failures and then take what you learn to help you succeed. Every time another of Edison’s creations burned up, blew up or simply fizzled he tried again, and again until one day - Eureka! MJ was cut from his high school team because at 5’11” (yes when the 6’ 6” Michael Jordan was 15 he was still under 6 feet) he was too short. Rather than give up he just played harder to prove that he was worth a shot. And Lincoln? He just bided his time until the times were right for his ideas to be embraced.
Everyone fails at some time. Truly successful people are the ones who get up every time a mistake or mis-timing knocks them down. The problem for many people is that once they have failed at something once so much self-doubt sets in that they simply refuse to keep trying, for fear of further humiliation. Rising above that fear may be all that it takes to get it right the next time around.
Some things might never work out (see Michael Jordan’s baseball career) but at least you know you tried, it didn’t work and you picked yourself up and moved on to better things.
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
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