If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.
I have no idea where this adage comes from, but the great thing about this and many other sayings, is that they are usually true!
Unfortunately though, we are taught, either formally or mostly informally that failure is a bad thing, and yet in the view of successful people this just isn’t the case. You only need look to Thomas Edison’s famous quote:
“I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”
for a healthy reminder of the need to try various options regardless of the failure rate, and yet, we persist in holding back on our dreams, for the most part due to the fear of failure.
Wonderful though it is to have a reminder that when we’re knocked back by failure, it is most likely in our interests to get back up and try again, what this saying doesn’t address is the need to be prepared to take action in the first place. For many people there is much difficulty in making a start on something new without any guarantee of a successful outcome. But fundamentally, failure to start is the biggest failure:
‘You may be disappointed if you fail, but you are doomed if you don’t try’. Beverly Sills [Read more…] about Lessons in Failure