It's OK To Fail

Thomas Edison was an inquisitive child at an early age. He attended school for only three months where the teacher labeled him a slow learner, quite possibly because of his early hearing problems. His mother removed him from school and decided to teach him at home. She encouraged him to read and he quickly developed a great interest in Science, especially chemistry. At the age of 10, he set up a small laboratory in the basement of the family home. At the age of 20, Edison set up a laboratory in Menlo Park, New Jersey where he spent his time as a full-time inventor.

Within two years, he had 40 different projects going and was applying for over 400 patents a year. In 1887, he boldly announced to the world that he would invent an inexpensive electric light that would replace the gas light. Often ridiculed, Edison tried over ten thousand different experiments before he finally demonstrated the first working light bulb on October 21, 1879.

Who could ever imagine where we might be today if Thomas Edison had not persevered after ten thousand failures? It's OK to fail. From every failure come the seed of an even greater possible success.

Robert Schuller compares this process to a high jumper approaching the bar. If he/she always clears the bar, we really don't know how high that person can jump. It's only when they trip the bar that we have a true measure of their success.

Without failure, we can never grow to our full potential, Embrace failure as a legitimate step in the right direction.

Restlessness and discontent are the first necessities of progress."

"I have more respect for the fellow with a single idea who gets there than for the fellow with a thousand ideas who does nothing."