Monday, January 22, 2007

Quotes and my thoughts on FAILURE

Quote of the day: “When I was young I observed that nine out of every ten things I did were failures, so I did ten times more work” George Bernard Shaw

I like this quote on failure. I have to admit that I don't like to fail, I don't think anyone does. I have learned (slowly and painfully) that in life nobody is perfect and we have a choice, we can either move on and learn from our mistakes/failures or we can be destroyed by them. Sometimes you learn how not to do something and sometimes you grow in character traits such as perseverance or how to accept criticism gracefully. Failure isn't easy, but in my opinion, living through it makes us better and stronger people.


Some of the most famous people know a lot about failure and rising above to achieve...

I am encouraged thinking about Thomas Edison. He "failed" 10,000 times before inventing the lightbulb! Most men would have given up long before 10,000 tries! Some would have called him a failure when his invention didn't work. He is quoted having said, "I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work." Because of his perseverence I can be a night owl and write this in a fully lit room.

Another example is Michael Jordan. Michael did not make his high school varsity basketball team when he tried out. He used that failure to try harder and become one of the best basketball legends of all time. When talking about failure he said...
" I have missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I have lost almost 300 games. On 26 occasions I have been entrusted to take the game winning shot... and missed. And I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why... I succeed."

So persevere and don't give up when life gets tough and it seems like you can't do anything right. Keep going, keep trying, and hopefully it doesn't take you 10,000 tries to get it right ;)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Such wonderful quotes on failure.....I will try and remeber them when I feel like a failure, which is often lately! :(

Anonymous said...

Jen, this is really well written and expressed. I am so proud of you. Thanks for sharing this with us.

Big (((Hug))).

You have so much to give!

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