Endure failure until you succeed!
I have not failed 700 times. I have not failed once. I have succeeded in proving that those 700 ways will not work. When I have eliminated the ways that will not work, I will find the way that will work. – Thomas Edison
I love this Thomas Edison quote. I find that it exemplifies what we must go through to achieve success.
If we succeed the first time we try, we only learn one thing:
- How to successfully do something.
Conversely, when we fail before we succeed, we learn multiple things:
- The fact that what you did does not work.
- The symptoms of what you did do so you can recognize them in the future.
- How to undo the mistake that was done.
- How to successfully do something.
As you can see, failure really is an opportunity to learn more than you do if you get lucky the first time.
So often people give up long before they succeed, thus not learning nearly as much as they could have if they just stuck in there to the end.