If you have been reading my blog you might remember that I really enjoy baseball. In considering that sport, a batter is measured as successful according to his batting average. If you had a player with a 300 battering average he would be playing REALLY well. That would mean he would be successfully hitting the ball three out of ten times at bat. However it would also mean that 7 times he FAILED to hit the ball. But, in perspective he would be extremely successful. How could he accomplish a successful career if he constantly concentrated on his failures? He would USE these failures to motivate himself to move forward and reach out for those opportunities where he would be successful. We should apply this principle within ALL areas of our lives. Regardless of the area of one’s expertise we will find people who are successful because they are not afraid of failure. They know that within the “averages” of the numbers they are going to succeed within time IF they do not tire out and give up! Consider a few examples:
Winston Churchill repeated a grade during elementary school and, when he entered Harrow, was placed in the lowest division of the lowest class. Later, he twice failed the entrance exam to the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst. He was defeated in his first effort to serve in Parliament. He became Prime Minister at the age of 62. He later wrote: “Never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never – in nothing, great or small, large or petty – never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense. Never, Never, Never, Never give up.”
Confucius said: “Our greatest glory is, not in never failing, but in rising every time we fail.”
Thomas Edison’s teachers said he was “too stupid to learn anything.” He was fired from his first two jobs for being “non-productive.” As an inventor, Edison made 1,000 unsuccessful attempts at inventing the light bulb. When a reporter asked, “How did it feel to fail 1,000 times?” Edison replied: “I didn’t fail 1,000 times. The light bulb was an invention with 1,000 steps.”
Albert Einstein did not speak until he was 4-years-old and did not read until he was 7. His parents thought he was “sub-normal,” and one of his teachers described him as “mentally slow, unsociable, and adrift forever in foolish dreams.” He was expelled from school and was refused admittance to the Zurich Polytechnic School. He did eventually learn to speak and read. Even to do a LITTLE MATH.
Louis Pasteur was only a mediocre pupil in undergraduate studies and ranked 15th out of 22 students in chemistry. In 1872, Pierre Pachet, Professor of Physiology at Toulouse, wrote that “Louis Pasteur’s theory of germs is ridiculous fiction.”
Henry Ford failed and went broke FIVE times before he succeeded. On one occasion Ford stated: “Failure provides the opportunity to begin again, more intelligently.”
Fred Smith, the founder of Federal Express, received a “C” on his college paper detailing his idea for a reliable overnight delivery service. His professor at Yale told him: “Well, Fred, the concept is interesting and well formed, but in order to earn better than a “C” grade, your ideas also have to be feasible.”
When Bell Telephone was struggling to get started, its owners offered all their rights to Western Union for $100,000. The offer was disdainfully rejected with the pronouncement, “What use could this company make of an electrical toy?”
Robert F Kennedy stated: “Only those who dare to fail greatly can achieve greatly.”
Rocket scientist Robert Goddard found his ideas bitterly rejected by his scientific peers on the grounds that rocket propulsion would not work in the rarefied atmosphere of outer space.
Basketball great Michael Jordan stated: “’I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot --- and missed! I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. That is why I succeed.”
Bobby Jones, golf legend, said: “I never learned a thing from a tournament I won.”
Walt Disney was fired by a newspaper editor because “he lacked imagination and had no good ideas.” He went bankrupt several times before he built Disneyland. In fact, the proposed park was rejected by the City of Anaheim on the grounds that it would only attract riffraff.”
After his first audition, Sidney Poitier was told by the casting director, “Why don’t you stop wasting people’s time and go out and become a dishwasher or something?” It was at that moment, recalls Poitier, that he decided to devote his life to acting.
In 1944, Emmeline Snively, director of the Blue Book Modeling Agency, told modeling hopeful Norma Jean Baker “You’d better learn secretarial work or else get married.” I’m sure you know that Norma Jean became known as Marilyn Monroe. Now - - - who was Emmeline Snively?
After Harrison Ford’s first performance as a hotel bellhop in the film Dead Heat on a Merry-Go-Round, the studio vice-president called him in to his office. “Sit down kid,” the studio head said, “I want to tell you a story. The first time Tony Curtis was ever in a movie he delivered a bag of groceries. We took one look at him and knew he was a movie star.” Ford replied, “I thought you were supposed to think that he was a grocery delivery boy?” The vice-president dismissed Ford with “You ain’t got it kid, you ain’t got it --- now get out of here.”
In high school, actor and comic Robin Williams was voted “Least Likely to Succeed.”
Decca Records turned down a recording contract with the Beatles with the unprophetic evaluation, “We don’t like their sound. Groups of guitars are on their way out.” After Decca rejected the Beatles, Columbia records followed suit.
In 1954, Jimmy Denny, manager of the Grand Ole Opry, fired Elvis Presley after one performance. He told Presley, “You ain’t goin’ nowhere, son. You ought to go back to drivin’ a truck.”
Van Gogh sold only ONE painting during his life. And this was to the sister of one of his friends for 400 francs (approximately $50 US at the time.) This didn’t stop him from completing over 800 paintings.
When Pablo Casais reached 95, a young reporter asked him, “Mr. Casais, you are 95 and the greatest cellist that ever lived. Why do you still practice six hours a day?” Mr. Casais answered, “Because I think I’m making progress.”
12 publishers rejected J.K. Rowling’s book about a boy wizard before a small London house picked up Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.
18 publishers turned down Richard Bach’s story about a “soaring eagle.” Macmillan finally published Jonathan Livingston Seagull in 1970. By 1975 it had sold more than 7 million copies in the U.S. alone!
There is a professor at MIT who offers a course on failure. He does that, he says, because failure is a far more common experience than success. An interviewer once asked him if anybody ever FAILED the course on failure. He thought for a moment and replied, “No, but there were two incompletes.”
With a little effort I think you can see my point. Why do we fall down? So we can get up again and move forward. There are more things in this world that will put obstacles in your path of success than you can begin to imagine. What we need to do is learn from our mistakes. Take a realistic review of ourselves and move on to success. Also, we can become the obstacles for others. Instead, let’s make efforts to be a support of reassurance to those around us. Don’t make yourself a stumbling block, but become a stepping stone. Remember the baseball player. If three out of ten swings are successful with each swing you bring yourself closer to a “hit” KEEP SWINGING!
May we have the attitude as expressed by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings in The Yearling: “Life knocks a man down and he gits up and it knocks him down again… What’s he to do when he gits knocked down? Why, take it for his share and go on.”
QUOTE TO CONSIDER
THOUGHTFUL GEM
"Consider ALL challenges a chance to grow as a person."
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