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Personal Success Requires 10,000 Ways That Won’t Work
By admin | February 26, 2009
“If I find 10,000 ways something won’t work, I haven’t failed. I am not discouraged, because every wrong attempt discarded is another step forward.” – Thomas A. Edison
Mr. Edison was certainly a genius as an inventor, but just as importantly had a tremendous tolerance for what many would call failure. In fact, he is a getting example of someone failing forward. His short term failures did not stop him from long term professional and personal success. Most of us know the story of Mr. Edison’s work on the electric light bulb. Although he and his team tried filament after filament, they couldn’t get the bulb to work. Finally, through the process of trial and error they found the correct combination of filament and coating. So after finding thousands of ways the electric light bulb didn’t work, eventually Mr Edison experienced success. Our lives today might be every different if Mr. Edison gave up just a few filaments sooner.
Perhaps some of us are held back by a peculiar type of perfectionism that doesn’t allow as to make mistakes, or to proceed if the first attempt does not reward us with our desired result. I can remember sitting with my grandson as he practiced printing the alphabet. Every he made a mistake, he’d rapidly tear up the paper and start again. This obviously made for a long homework session. When I suggested he used the eraser he informed me that “it is too messy” and continued until he encountered problems with letter G. So of course he needed to start again.
I tried a different approach and explained how I often had to draft several “practice” letters before I actually mailed a letter out to a customer. I suggested that he complete a draft of the entire alphabet once, fix the letters on the draft using the eraser and then recopy them to create a final product. This suggestion was greeted with a smile and enthusiast nodding. Eureka! Success, we got our perfect (almost) copy and both got into bed on time;-)
So the next time you’re feeling down, while on your quest for personal success, remember our friend Mr. Edison. Or for that matter my grandson Cody. Then hurry up and “find 10,000 ways that won’t work”. You’ll be that much closer to the solution and your ultimate success.
Wishing you a larger life,
BB
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