The Art of Failure
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Failure is really a matter of conceit.
People don’t work hard because,
In their conceit, they imagine they’ll succeed
Without ever making an effort.
Most people believe that they’ll
Wake up some day and find themselves rich.
Actually, they’ve got it half right,
Because eventually they do wake up.
~ Thomas Edison
When you fail, refuse to give up.
- Be like R.H. Macy … who failed seven times before his store in New York caught on.
- Be like novelist John Creasey … who received 753 rejection slips before he published the first of 564 books.
- Be like Thomas Edison … who was thrown out of school when the teachers decided he was incapable of learning and became one of the most prolific inventors the world has ever known.
- Be like Harry S. Truman … who failed as a haberdasher but became one of America’s most effective Presidents.
- Be like Bob Dylan … who was booed off the stage of his high school talent show but became one of the world’s most enduring rock stars.
- Or be like W. Clement Stone … who was a high school dropout but became the founder of an insurance company, and “Success” magazine, and one of the wealthiest people in the country.
- The author of “Dances With Wolves,” Michael Blake says, “I tell people that if you stay committed, your dreams can come true. I’m living proof of it. I left home at 17 and had nothing but rejections for 25 years. I wrote more than 20 screenplays, but I never gave up.”
Just think of all the great goals people have accomplished because they set definite goals. It’s overwhelming. Monty Stratton played baseball with one leg. Tom Dempsey kicked a 65-yard field goal with half a foot. John Milton wrote classical poetry while he was blind. Beethoven wrote his greatest musical compositions despite his deafness. Roosevelt became one of our greatest Presidents despite his polio. Helen Keller toured and lectured around the world even though she lacked sight and hearing. John Bunyan wrote “Pilgrim’s Progress” while incarcerated, and Charles Goodyear did many of his early experiments for vulcanizing rubber while he was in prison.