How can Failure be the Gateway to Success? Well lets start with a history lesson.
- Walt Disney: Walt was fired early in his career as a newspaper editor and fired because, “he lacked imagination and had no good ideas.” So in this instance Walt was labeled as a failure; however, to the delight of millions everywhere he did not throw in the towel. As we all know Walt Disney built an empire in the form of cartoons, movies, theme parks and much much more.
- KFC anyone? David Sanders had his world recognized secret fried chicken rejected by 1,009 restaurants before he had a taker. Talk about a great investment as there are now more than 15,000 restaurants worldwide. At one point the Colonel carried his secret recipe in his car searching endlessly for a business partner.
- Jerry Seinfeld froze and was booed off stage when he first tried his routine at a comedy club. However Jerry knew he could do it and returned the next night and knocked it out of the park. Lucky for millions of Seinfeld fans he believed in himself and did not quit.
- Vincent Van Gogh is considered one of the greatest artist in history. His painting are worth millions and are adorned by millions. But did you know that Van Gogh only sold one painting while he was living? This one painting was sold to a close friend of his. But Van Gogh continued to paint and completed over 800 works despite the fact that he was starving and received little if any fanfare during his life.
- Babe Ruth anyone??? The Babe was famous for his saying, ” Every strike brings me closer to the next home run.”
My point is that we will not always succeed. I will even endeavor to say that we will more than likely fail more times than we will succeed in this life. It is all about our attitude and how we approach these failures in our lives. Sometimes we can learn much more about ourselves as we fail versus. I know for me personally I have learned more about myself when I face adversity in my life. For example I can remember my first semester in college I was thinking to myself wow this really isn’t hard at all. This thinking lead me to believe that I could put forth the same amount of effort in my studies as I did in High School. Oh how wrong I was…I distinctly remember getting my first test back in MA 121 Calculus and feeling sick upon seeing that I made a 61.
Now at this moment I was faced with two choices I could of marked it up as A. I had a bad day and I really did know this stuff and I just made a couple of careless errors. Or B. I need to go talk to the professor and get help and find extra ways to learn the material. Lucky for me I choose option B. I talked to my professor and discussed how I could study better and where I could get extra help. I was also very fortunate for my good friend Stephanie who helped me learn the material as well. I am happy to report that I ended up getting a B in the class.
This experience helped me throughout my college career. I learned that just because you do poorly on one test doesn’t mean that you can’t recover and salvage a good grade for the semester. I also learned that it’s ok if I am not the best at a given subject or topic. I really learned to appreciate others and their talents. I am very grateful that we are all different because this makes life more interesting and gives us countless resources to figure things out.
The only way one can truly fail is if they decide not to try again. I believe that success can be defined by how many times we get back up after we fall. So I challenge everyone to keep working and do not get discouraged when life gets difficult. Remember that they are lots of people out there that can help. I think we have all become guilty of not believing in the human spirit and what we can accomplish together. Learn from your failures and your successes will be greater than your wildest dreams!
Nunc Coepi 