The Breathing Prosperity blog

I took my kids to see Meet The Robinsons a few weeks ago. Another great Disney movie I might add but it brought up an interesting point for me. In the movie the little boy (don’t ask me his name) tried to fix the PBandJ dispenser gun and it blew PBandJ everywhere - complete failure. The family laughed and cheered and he couldn’t understand why. I just failed he thought but they were cheering. They said well around here we CELEBRATE FAILURE! If we never failed we couldn’t make things better now could we…

A deeper look at past failures

Thomas Edison creator of the light bulb - FAILED 10,000 times before he invented the light bulb. Correction in his own words “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” 

Abraham Lincoln 16th President of the United States - a list of his failures (along with a few successes) is:

• 1831 - Lost his job
• 1832 - Defeated in run for Illinois State Legislature
• 1833 - Failed in business
• 1834 - Elected to Illinois State Legislature (success)
• 1835 - Sweetheart died
• 1836 - Had nervous breakdown
• 1838 - Defeated in run for Illinois House Speaker
• 1843 - Defeated in run for nomination for U.S. Congress
• 1846 - Elected to Congress (success)
• 1848 - Lost re-nomination
• 1849 - Rejected for land officer position
• 1854 - Defeated in run for U.S. Senate
• 1856 - Defeated in run for nomination for Vice President
• 1858 - Again defeated in run for U.S. Senate
• 1860 - Elected President (success)

Yep almost 30 years full of a lot of failure - but if he had given up who would have been our 16th President?

The Wright brothers - Inventors of the Airplane - Started their first designs in 1899 but didn’t have the first practical plane till 1905.

“Failure’s a learning experience, and the guy who’s never failed has never done anything,” Greatbatch says. “Nine out of 10 things I’ve done have never worked. And that doesn’t bother me.” Have no clue who Greatbatch is??? He invented the implantable pacemaker -  a lot of people are living because he FAILED!

Percy L. Spencer - No clue who he is either, huh? Well he invented the Microwave-The first microwave weighed 750lbs and stood five feet six inches tall- It took decades after inital invention for it to be useful to the average consumer- What if they had stopped trying?

Biro brothers went through plenty of failed prototypes to perfect the ballpoint pen.

Donald Trump - Filed Bankruptcy after his initial successes. Now you may say that he came from money, but it is clearly his own attitude and ambition that allowed him to come back from bankruptcy and become a Billionaire.

J.K. Rowling - Harry Potter creator - was on welfare and sold her first Harry Potter novel for $3K…is now the richest woman in the UK.

Chris Gardner - life documented in the movie the Pursuit of Happyness - Multi Millionaire - used to be homeless living in shelters with his son.

A child learning to walk - How many times do they fall on the floor before they learn? Countless.

We learned as kids to fear making mistakes and to fear being wrong and to fear failing instead of being proud to fail and proud to learn from our mistakes.

Men succeed when they realize that their failures are the preparation for their victories. — Ralph Waldo Emerson

EVERYONE FEARS FAILURE BUT BREAKTHROUGHS DEPEND UPON IT!!!

Failure is the first step toward success and where would any of these people on my list be without their past failures? Have their past failures not fueled their lives? Have their past failures not changed the course of HISTORY? Have their past failures made a difference in your life? What if they had given up? Could you live without a microwave or a bulb, a role model like Donald Trump, J.K. Rowling or Chris Gardner? Could you write without a pen, or could you hop a plane to Japan? Could you get on the internet to read my words if someone hadn’t failed and gotten up and brushed themselves off and tried again?

Today and every day we celebrate our failures and if you’ve ever failed - YOU ARE IN THE GREATEST COMPANY because you are brilliant and magnificent and a future success waiting to happen!

If you think these failures are impressive - and the successes inspiring - check out our Get Inspired E-Course, full of stories of ‘ordinary’ people who went on to accomplish great things in their lives…an inspiration to us all..to show us WE can do great things too!

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