I was reading about Abraham Lincoln and his seemingly perpetual failures the other day. Did you know that Lincoln failed in business several times? He also tried to run for Legislature, Congress, Speaker of the House, Elector, Senate and Vice President, and lost at least one time for each of these positions. Eventually, at the age of 51, he ran for President of the United States and won.
Imagine, if Abraham Lincoln had not persevered through emotional trauma, disappointments, poverty, business setbacks, and numerous political defeats--the course of history would be changed!
The truth is that most people who are unanimously admired did not ascend to the mountain peak in one graceful step, but rather experienced (and learned from) several "failures" in their lives that might have discouraged people of less passion and determination.
Let's look at a few (From Failure to Famous):
*Elvis Presley tried to join his high school glee club but was turned down.
*Woody Allen failed English and flunked Motion Picture Production class in college. He later went on to be a three-time Academy Award winning writer, producer and director.
*Charles Schultz (you know, the cartoonist who created the cartoon Peanuts) was actually told by his high school year book staff that his drawings were not good enough for the annual yearbook.
*Winston Churchill had his greatest successes in his golden years--he did not become Prime Minister until he was 62, and then after several setbacks.
*Early in her career Lucille Ball was dismissed from drama school for being too quiet and shy.
*Michael Jordan was cut as a sophomore from his high-school basketball team in Wilmington, N.C. "The day the cut list was going up, a friend--Leroy Smith--and I went to the gym to look together," Jordan recalled. "If your name was on the list, you made the team. Leroy's name was there, and mine wasn't. I went through the day numb. After school, I hurried home, closed the door to my room and cried so hard. It was all I wanted--to play on that team." (Bob Greene, in Reader's Digest )
*Clint Eastwood was once told by a Universal Studios executive that he wouldn't go far in Hollywood, because he had a chipped tooth and talked too slow.
*William Faulkner failed high school. As he was trying to get accepted to a University he took a job as a postmaster but was fired for reading on the job.
*Henry Ford forgot to put a reverse gear in the first car he manufactured. He also went broke 5 times before he finally created a business model that worked.
*The first time Laurence Olivier stepped on a stage he tripped and fell headfirst into the floodlights.
The Most Cutting-Edge Thinkers Were Failures
Many of these "failures" were the result of people being different, being ground breaking, being unlike anyone else who walked the face of the earth. When a visionary arrives on the scene oftentimes they're met with skepticism and encouraged to step back in line, to do things the way that people usually do them. The famous people listed here ignored that call join the pack--instead they harnessed their uniqueness and their vision and created a way to succeed.
I also learned something else interesting--Tulane University suggest the average entrepreneur fails 3.8 times before making it work.
As entrepreneurs, we each have a vision of an impact that we would like to make in the world. A natural aspect of trying something new and venturing out are occasional (and oftentimes recurring) failures. Those that become hugely successful did so by continuing despite numerous setbacks.
In creating and running your business, how many times have you tripped and fallen? An even better question is how many times did you get back up?
Excellent article. I just wrote a motivational post from a very harsh, 3rd person point of view: http://natespost.com/index.php/5-reasons-a-loser-like-you-will-never-make-it/
Posted by: Nate | March 07, 2008 at 03:17 PM
Nate, your post made me chuckle. I like your site.
Thanks so much for stopping by :-)
Posted by: Sharon Sarmiento | March 07, 2008 at 05:27 PM