As Thomas Edison famously said: “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”
Which begs the question: how many times does one have to fail before they experience success?
- Steven Spielberg was rejected by the University of Southern California Film School 3 times. He eventually attended another school, only to drop out and become a director. He returned to school to earn his BA 35 years later.
- Richard Branson launched 400 companies before founding Virgin Galactic, including Virgin Cola, Virgin Brides, Virgin Cars, Virgin Clothing and Virgin Cosmetics.
- Colonel Sanders was rejected 1,009 times when trying to sell his fried chicken recipe. Who is having the last laugh now?
- Sylvester Stallone was rejected 1,500 times when he tried selling his script and himself for what would be the film ‘Rocky’. Today, Rocky is one of the most successful film series of all time, grossing more than US $1 billion.
Reading the above, at what point would you have to give up or have given up? More importantly, what would keep you going?
Like it or not, failure and success are bound. We live in a culture that judges failure harshly and looks down on it. And with social media, we are forced to compare our everyday lives with strangers’ highlight reels of what they want us to see. No one shows the struggle it takes to be successful. We admire successful people and wish to have their results, but we pay little mind to their process.
My colleague Emelda Mwamanga, CEO and founder of Bang! Magazine, discussed this very subject on my podcast, noting how important it is to evolve with the lessons learned in the struggle phase as well as having the courage to charge forward when things don’t quite work out as planned. I highly suggest you check it out and do let me know what your thoughts on the matter are.
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