The Sweetest Victory is the One that's most Difficult

Thomas Edison is one of the most famous inventors in the human history. His memorable invention was the light bulb. It took him about 1,000 tries before he developed a successful prototype.

“How did it feel to fail 1,000 times?” a reporter asked.
“I didn’t fail 1,000 times,” Edison responded. “The light bulb was an invention with 1,000 steps.”

Richard Branson

Some resource writes that he responded, “I didn’t fail 1,000 times, I just found out 1,000 times not to do it.” Whatever his responded was, one thing for sure is that he successfully invented the first electric light bulb. What if Thomas Edison had given up after his first attempt to make the electric light bulb? Okay, how about after hundredth attempt? Not for Edison, he chose to use each failure as his reason to think that he was getting closer to the solution.

I have to admit that I’m easily discouraged after facing few failures in my attempt. If not because of those closers to me, I won’t be where I am today. If not because God never give up on me, I’m sure that I will end up in prison or boy’s home eventually (or both). I read one great piece of advice that says: To achieve the greatest success, you have to embrace the prospect of failure.

Here are 6 Famous Failures that drive through the bumpy road to success:
(Source: by Pauline Estrem from SUCCESS Magazine October 2010)

Michael Jordan was once cut from his high school basketball team. In his words, “I’ve failed over and over again in life. That is why I succeed.”


Donald Trump was $1 Billion in debt at one point in the 1990s. In his words, “I refused to give up. Defeat is not in my vocabulary.”

Babe Ruth, in his pursuit of the home run record, also landed the most strikeouts, totaling 1,330. In his words, “Every strike brings me closer to the next home run.”

Winston Churchill lost every election for public office until he became prime minister. In his words, “Never give in; never give in, never, never, never, never – in anything, great or small, large or petty – never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense.”

Vince Lombardi was once slammed by a critic who said that “he possesses minimal football knowledge and lacks motivation.” In his words, “It’s not whether you get knocked down; it’s whether you get back up.”

Richard Branson (He has a great name!) has lost millions of dollars in various ventures. In his words, “You fail if you don’t try. If you try and you fail, yes, you’ll have a few articles saying that you’ve failed at something. But if you look at the history of American entrepreneurs, one thing I do know about them: An awful lot of them have tried and failed in the past and gone on to great things.”

Tell me, how to you see your failures now?

THINK BIG. START SMALL. GO DEEP.