Failure is the crucible for success

Peter Urban June 3rd, 2008

There is a common misconception that successful people or companies have always made the right decisions, done the right things and somehow always known how to become successful. Quite the contrary. In my experience, almost every great success story has been preceded by a whole array of failures.

Win a free one-year Doorbell subscription: How many of Thomas Edison’s attempts to make a light bulb failed before he made it work? The first correct answer in this post’s comments wins. –

Most successful people have dealt with their share of failures before getting the first taste of success. And, many successful people and companies have failed again after achieving significant success.

In a post titled ”The liberating effect of failure” CNN Money explains why ”failure is the crucible that makes a leader into a hero”. They provide multiple examples including video interviews of CEO’s and founders that have rebounded after significant failures. There is a great deal to learn from this post, in that typical success stories often don’t show the full picture and are rarely a good role model for helping you to realize your own ambitions.


READER COMMENTS

  1. Cory says:

    It is said that Thomas Edison “failed” at his attempts to invent the light bulb over 10,000 times.

  2. I’d say he never failed… he just found x incorrect ways (thousands) to create a lightbulb which would eventually lead him to create the functional lightbulb.

  3. Forrest says:

    It’s not that the first attempts didn’t work…. they just came with a built in ‘power saving’ feature.

  4. Peter Urban says:

    Yes I guess he invented the ‘black light’ bulb first :-)

  5. John Minni says:

    I found this on the internet so I bet it is true!
    “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.” –Edison

  6. Peter Urban says:

    Ok, the competition for winning a Doorbell subscription is closed. Congratulations to John Mini, Malcolm Tyson and Cory. We couldn’t find a way to pin an exact number so we decided to declare them all winners.

  7. Barrieav says:

    Edison did not in fact create the Light Bulb but an electric carbon filament lamp.
    He bought the light bulb patent from a Canadian by the name of Henry Woodward in Toronto, Ontario in August of 1876.
    Therefore technically your question was not answered correctly by anyone.
    Yes I know the contest is closed but the facts must be stated.
    Thanks

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