EVERY SUCCESS STORY IS ALSO A STORY OF GREAT FAILURE

Failure is the highway to success. Tom Watson Sr. said, "If you want to succeed, double your
failure rate." If you study history, you will find that all stories of success are also stories of great
failures. But people don't see the failures. They only see one side of the picture and they say that
person got lucy! ""e must ha#e been at the right place at the right time."
$et me share someone's life history with you. This was a man who failed in business at the age of
%& ' was defeated in a legislati#e race at age %%' failed again in business at age %(' o#ercame the
death of his sweetheart at age %)' had a ner#ous breadown at age %*' lost a congressional race at
age +(' lost a senatorial race at age (,' failed in an effort to become #ice-president at age (*' lost
a senatorial race at age (.' and was elected president of the /nited States at age ,%.
This man was 0braham $incoln.
Would you call him a failure1 "e could ha#e 2uit. But to $incoln, defeat was a detour and not a
dead end.
In &.&+, $ee 3e Forest, in#entor of the triodes tube, was charged by the district attorney for
using fraudulent means to mislead the public into buying stocs of his company by claiming that
he could transmit the human #oice across the 0tlantic. "e was publicly humiliated. 4an you
imagine where we would be without his in#ention1
0 5ew 6or Times editorial on 3ecember &7, &.7+, 2uestioned the wisdom of the Wright
Brothers who were trying to in#ent a machine, hea#ier than air, that would fly. 8ne wee later, at
9itty "aw, the Wright Brothers too their famous flight.
4olonel Sanders, at age ),, with a beat-up car and a :&77 chec from Social Security, reali;ed he
had to do something. "e remembered his mother's recipe and went out selling. "ow many doors
did he ha#e to noc on before he got his first order1 It is estimated that he had noced on more
than a thousand doors before he got his first order. "ow many of us 2uit after three tries, ten
tries, a hundred tries, and then we say we tried as hard as we could1
0s a young cartoonist, Walt 3isney faced many re<ections from newspaper editors, who said he
had no talent. 8ne day a minister at a church hired him to draw some cartoons. 3isney was
woring out of a small mouse infested shed near the church. 0fter seeing a small mouse, he was
inspired. That was the start of =icey =ouse.
Successful people don't do great thngs! the" onl" do s#all thngs n a great $a"%
8ne day a partially deaf four year old id came home with a note in his pocet from his teacher,
"6our Tommy is too stupid to learn, get him out of the school." "is mother read the note and
answered, "=y Tommy is not stupid to learn, I will teach him myself." 0nd that Tommy grew up
to be the great Thomas >dison. Thomas >dison had only three months of formal schooling and
he was partially deaf.
"enry Ford forgot to put the re#erse gear in the first car he made.
3o you consider these people failures1 The" succeeded n spte of pro&le#s! not n the
a&sence of the#% But to the outside world, it appears as though they <ust got lucy.
0ll success stories are stories of great failures. The only difference is that e#ery time they failed,
they bounced bac. This is called failing forward, rather than bacward. 6ou learn and mo#e
forward. $earn from your failure and eep mo#ing.
'elo$ are #ore e(a#ples of the falures of successful people)
*% Tho#as Edson faled appro(#atel" *+!+++ t#es $hle he $as $or,ng on the lght
&ul&%
-% .enr" Ford $as &ro,e at the age of /+%
0% Lee Iacocca $as fred &" .enr" Ford II at the age of 1/%
/% Young 'eetho2en $as told that he had no talent for #usc! &ut he ga2e so#e of the &est
#usc to the $orld%