Saturday, December 20, 2008

10 Inspirations for Embracing Failure

You know the guy on your team who’s always pushing back against unusual ideas? The gloom-and-doomer who’s convinced that if it’s different, it must be wrong? Could be he’s just afraid of not succeeding at a new endeavor.

Here’s some food for thought to convince him that failure can indeed be an option.

“I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” - Thomas Edison

“If you’re not failing every now and again, it’s a sign you’re not doing anything very innovative.” - Woody Allen

“Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.” - Winston Churchill

“Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor.” - Truman Capote

“A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable but more useful than a life spent in doing nothing.” - George Bernard Shaw

“Success is never permanent, and failure is never final.” - Mike Ditka

“Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes.” - Oscar Wilde

“Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.” - Robert F. Kennedy

“Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.” - Confucious

And my personal favorite:

“It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes short again and again, who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause, who at best knows achievement and who at the worst if he fails at least fails while daring greatly so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.” - Theodore Roosevelt

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

For an even more comprehensive list, check out my post http://brucelynnblog.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!B5C035B7809F740A!330.entry. I have been blogging on the subject exclusively for the past several years and the blog has a whole range of examples and stories.