Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.
Reviewing what I write on this blog....I find many times my writing seems very negative and abstract. I am posting this to remind myself (as well as anyone else) that there is always hope no matter how many times we hit failure in life .............
- Socrates was called, "An immoral corrupter of youth."
- Beethoven handled the violin awkwardly and preferred playing his own compositions instead of improving his technique. His teacher called him hopeless as a composer.
- Walt Disney was fired by a newspaper editor for lack of ideas. Walt Disney also went bankrupt several times before he built Disneyland.
- Thomas Edison's teachers said he was too stupid to learn anything.
- Albert Einstein did not speak until he was four years old and didn't read until he was seven. His teacher described him as "mentally slow, unsociable and adrift forever in his foolish dreams." He was expelled and was refused admittance to the Zurich Polytechnic School
- Isaac Newton did very poorly in grade school—Leo Tolstoy, author of War and Peace, flunked out of college. He was described as "both unable and unwilling to learn."
- Henry Ford failed and went broke five times before he finally succeeded.
- Winston Churchill failed sixth grade. He did not become Prime Minister of England until he was 62, and then only after a lifetime of defeats and setbacks. His greatest contributions came when he was a "senior citizen."
- Eighteen publishers turned down Richard Bach's 10,000-word story about a "soaring" seagull, Jonathan Livingston Seagull, before Macmillan finally published it in 1970. By 1975 it had sold more than 7 million copies in the U.S. alone.
In case not inspired already, read every bit of this:
Abraham Lincoln Didn't Quit
Probably the greatest example of persistence is Abraham Lincoln. If you want to learn about somebody who didn't quit, look no further.
Born into poverty, Lincoln was faced with defeat throughout his life.
1816 His family was forced out of their home. He had to work to support them.
1818 His mother died.
1831 Failed in business.
1832 Ran for state legislature—lost.
1832 Also lost his job—wanted to go to law school but couldn't get in.
1833 Borrowed some money from a friend to begin a business and by the end of the year he was bankrupt. He spent the next 17 years of his life paying off this debt.
1834 Ran for state legislature again—won.
1835 Was engaged to be married, sweetheart died and his heart was broken.
1836 Had a total nervous breakdown and was in bed for six months.
1838 Sought to become speaker of the state legislature—defeated.
1840 Sought to become elector—defeated.
1843 Ran for Congress—lost.
1846 Ran for Congress again—this time he won—went to Washington and did a good job.
1848 Ran for re-election to Congress—lost.
1849 Sought the job of land officer in his home state—rejected.
1854 Ran for Senate of the United States—lost.
1856 Sought the Vice-Presidential nomination at his party's national convention—got less than 100 votes.
1858 Ran for U.S. Senate again—again he lost.
1860 Elected president of the United States.
The path was worn and slippery. My foot slipped from under me, knocking the other out of the way, but I recovered and said to myself, "It's a slip and not a fall."
-Abraham Lincoln After losing a senate race.
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I would say its very hard to find so much persistence, but we are are allowed to take a break once a while but not quit the race.
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