TOP5

Successful People Who Have Failed

To invent, you need a good imagination and a pile of junk.

- THOMAS EDISON

Chances are you have heard of Edison in relation to overcoming failure before.  He was a master of “trial and error”.

When asked about the many thousands of failures he had when trying to create the light-bulb he famously said, “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”  But there is even more to it than that.  As a child he was thought to be dumb and told that he would never be a success by many of his teachers, because his mind would often wander in class.Good thing for us that the greatest inventor in history did not listen.

Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school.

- ALBERT EINSTEIN

If asked to name a genius, most people would come up with the name Albert Einstein.  Yet even for Einstein genius did not come easy. As a teen he rebelled against his schools reliance on rote learning and failed.  He tried to test into Zurich Polytechnic, but failed again (although he did very well in the math and physics section…as you might expect).  Einstein buckled down, received the requisite training and applied to Zurich Polytechnic again, and of course was accepted.A few years later he had a PHD and was recognized as a leading theorist.  A few years after that he had a Nobel prize for physics and began to be recognized as the genius of our modern era.

Truth is like the sun. You can shut it out for a time, but it ain't goin' away.- ELVIS PRESLEY

You do not need to be a Elvis fan to acknowledge the impact he has had on popular music.  They don’t dub somebody the “King” of a form of music without a great amount of success.

But even for Elvis success came after failure.  His first recordings went nowhere.  After that he tried to join a vocal quartet and was told he, “couldn’t sing”.  Finally, right before he became popular, he was told, “You ain’t goin’ nowhere, son. You ought to go back to drivin’ a truck.”

I've failed over and over and over again in my life and that is why I succeed.

- MICHAEL JORDAN

It is hard to imagine it, but the Jordan, who is arguably the greatest basketball player ever, was once cut from his high school team.

As Jordan puts it, “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.”

I HAVE ALWAYS FOUND THAT MERCY BEARS RICHER FRUITS THAN STRICT JUSTICE. - ABRAHAM LINCOLN

If Lincoln quit when the going got tough, the world might be a very different place.  As a young man Lincoln entered military service in the Black Hawk war as a captain.  Yet left as a private.With very little formal education, Lincoln taught himself and became a lawyer and congressman.His real rise to “national” prominence could also be viewed as a, “failure”.  In 1858 Lincoln tried for a seat in the Illinois senate.  This led to a series of hotly contested debates.  (The Lincoln-Douglas debates).  Lincoln lost the senate election, but really impressed a lot of the “right” people, even with his loss.   Two years later he ran for president and won.  Thankfully he did not let lack of formal education, initial failure or setbacks rattle him.