Failing Forward: Stories behind every
success story through failure
My friend
Maria and I got our degrees at the same time - hers in Engineering, mine in
Mathematics. These subjects, in case you aren't aware, are tough! There were
classes we really had to struggle with, fight to get through, and survived only
by digging our fingers in with everything we had. Along the way, many of the
people who started at the same time we did dropped out, changed majors, etc.
They quit. Maria and I didn't and we have degrees to show for it.
Maria and I
came up with a saying, "We're not quitters, we're failures!" We'd
rather fail a class three times and eventually pass it than quit and resign
ourselves to the idea that we "just can't get it." That kind of
sob-story defeatism has to be expunged from your mind. While there are things
that you can't do - like flying via pixie dust - most of the things you want in
life you can have, but only if you treat failure as a part of the learning
process. If you see failure as an end, that makes you a quitter.
You can't
succeed at anything if you quit. Don't be a quitter, be a failure.
Fitness
goals are interesting in their abstractness, they can be quite oddball (who
really needs to squat double bodyweight?), and they can take a very long time
and a lot of energy to accomplish. Without a willingness to endure failure
you'll never reach your goals.
Here are a
few examples of failures that made good to keep you inspired to keep failing
and never quit.
1. J.K.
Rowling
J.K.
Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter novels was waitressing and on public
assistance when she was writing the first installment of what would become one
of the best selling series in history. The book was rejected by a dozen
publishers. The only reason it got published at all was because the CEO's eight
year old daughter begged him to publish it.
“Failure
meant a stripping away of the inessential.” - J.K. Rowling
Now, if that
isn't a great Zen line, I don't know what is!
2. Michael
Jordan
It might
come as a shock, but the man who became what many would call the best
basketball player of all time didn't make his high school basketball team.
“I have
missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I have lost almost 300 games. On 26
occasions I have been entrusted to take the game winning shot, and I missed. I
have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I
succeed.” - Michael Jordan
3. Thomas
Edison
Thomas
Edison was both hearing impaired and fidgety. He only lasted three months in
school where his teachers said he was "too stupid to learn anything."
He eventually was home schooled by his mom. In talking about his invention of
the light bulb, he said:
“I have not
failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that do not work.” - Thomas Edison
4. James
Carville
When I was a
kid I was obsessed with political campaigns the way other kids were obsessed
with sports. During the 1992 Presidential campaign there was no greater
superstar-whacko than Clinton's political operative, James Carville. With his
shaved bald head, snake-like facial features, and his deep Louisiana accent he
seemed like a man out of the Twilight Zone!
He's now
considered to be one of the greatest political operatives of a generation. But,
before he ended up on that fateful campaign in his early 40's he was dead
broke, had won only a handful of elections, and had never even been approved
for a credit card. On paper, he looked like a complete failure. By not giving
up he ended up in the White House.
"No one
will ever accuse James Carville of taking himself seriously." - James
Carville
5. Ludwig
van Beethoven
His early
skills at music and the violin were decidedly less than impressive. His
teachers thought him hopeless. It was his father who saw the potential in him
and took over his education. Beethoven slowly lost his hearing throughout his
life and yet, four of his greatest works were composed when he was completely
deaf.
"Beethoven
can write music, thank God, because he can't do anything else!" - Ludwig
van Beethoven
6.
Christopher Reeve
The man who
played Superman becoming a quadriplegic was more than ironic - it was tragic.
He never learned to be happy about his situation - who could? But, he did learn
to live with it.
“In the
morning, I need twenty minutes to cry. To wake up and make that shift, you
know, and to just say, 'This is really bad,' to really allow yourself the
feeling of loss. It still needs to be acknowledged.” - Christopher Reeve
Then, he'd
say, "And now...forward!"
He had to
take a moment everyday to acknowledge where he was, what the reality of the
situation was. But, he didn't allow that to stop him. He traveled widely doing
public speaking on behalf of people with spinal injuries, tirelessly raised
money for his own and other foundations, and even became a movie director. He
took what he had and tried to help others in the best way he could.
7. Oprah
Winfrey
Her
childhood was frightful and filled with horrible abuse and abject poverty. But,
like most successful people, Oprah doesn't dwell on stuff like that.
"I don’t
think of myself as a poor deprived ghetto girl who made good. I think of myself
as somebody who from an early age knew I was responsible for myself, and I had
to make good." - Oprah Winfrey
BONUS:
Oh, anyway, I'll give you a few more! You can never have enough inspirational stories
to keep you going.
Vincent Van
Gogh
The man was
a manic depressive. He could barely function half the time. He never saw
success in his lifetime, but his work is often regarded as the greatest
painting ever done by any human on earth. Because of this, his name has become
a war cry for artists around the world who have been repeatedly rejected and
sidelined.
"Even
the knowledge of my own fallibility cannot keep me from making mistakes. Only
when I fall do I get up again." - Vincent van Gogh
Quotes
"Life
is too important a thing ever to talk seriously about." - Oscar Wilde
I'll close
with another quote by Michael Jordan.
"Some
want it to happen, some wish it would happen, others make it happen." -
Michael Jordan
Now go make
something happen.
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