Failure -- A Valuable Assistant

“There are no failures – just experiences and your reactions to them.” ~ Tom Krause


“I have not failed,” Thomas Edison once said, “I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.” And he did indeed, but once he finally succeeded, he came up with one of the most valuable inventions of our time – incandescent lights.

In all truth, Thomas Edison didn’t invent the light bulb – someone else had patented a similar invention fifty years earlier – but contrary to the first light bulbs which only lasted 150 hours, Edison was able to create a product which lasted 1200 hours, only about 300 hours less than the light bulbs we use today. Edison tried thousands of different substances in making the filament of an incandescent light bulb until he found one material that lasted long enough to make the light bulb cheap enough to sell. In 1879, he finally succeeded. He made a light bulb using carbonized filaments from cotton thread. The light bulb burned for two days. His bulbs were first installed on the steamship "Columbia" and later in a New York City factory. The first public demonstration of the Thomas Edison's incandescent lighting system was in December 1879, when the Menlo Park laboratory complex was electrically lighted. Edison spent the next several years creating the electric industry.

The light bulb wasn’t Thomas Edison’s only project. He worked on inventions previously discovered but never completed, and initiated other ideas which he never perfected himself but helped future inventors in their own work. His career was brightened by successful breakthroughs, but also laden with many failures, which he refused to acknowledge as such. In one of his famous statements, he asserted that there is no such thing as failure, but just results; some of those results are just not what one hopes to see.

And indeed he was right. The most fascinating part of his thinking is that he recognized the value of each experience as a step toward perfection. Each time we try something, our brain stores the data from our efforts and organizes it in two lists – one list of what works and one of what we should avoid in future attempts. Understanding what will help us succeed is important, but we shouldn’t underestimate the value of being familiar with whatever will hinder our journey – once we know what doesn’t work, we can bypass the obstacle at the next try, and reach the goal by a process of elimination.

Fear of failure is the greatest enemy of innovation, and it is quite common to choose stagnation over rejection. What we often don’t realize is that idleness caused by fear is the only failure one can encounter. Failure is the personal assistant to success.

http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/bledison.htm
http://www.patentdrafting.com/edison.htm

The Tree House

“In order to reach your goals, you will have to climb a long way and be frightened. But take it a step at a time”


Those were the words a kind uncle uttered one day, as his young niece expressed her fear of climbing the ladder leading to the tree house he had built. Their home was a two-story Victorian with a steep pitched roof - the tree house was in an old oak tree, and it was higher than the roof top of the Victorian house. To the little girl who stood at the bottom of the tree, the tree house seemed to float above the clouds, and she was apprehensive about going up. Despite her fears, her uncle gently nudged her to start climbing.

Many years later, as she worked her way through college, and struggled to juggle jobs and school work, the girl always remembered that day, and thoughts of the tree house propelled her forward toward achieving greater heights.
Even if the heights we are attempting to reach are not unthinkable ones, it is quite common to be frightened when we contemplate our goals. Just like the tree house, our dreams seem exceedingly distant and it is easy to forget that each step gets us closer to destination.

We may not see the results right away, and that’s usually discouraging. Once a goal is set, faith must carry us the rest of the way. We can’t look down, or else we will fall. We can only go forward, one step at a time, knowing that we WILL get to the tree house if we keep up our efforts.

Growing up, I had a friend who had weight problems. Periodically, she would get motivated to try a new diet, but after following it for a week or two, she would give up. When I asked why she didn’t stick with the regimen, she always replied that she wasn’t losing any weight anyway. In reality, it was not true. Even after a week, one could tell that something was slightly changing, but it would have taken several weeks to see noticeable results. The change was not dramatic enough to keep her committed to her goal.

A few years ago, I ran into her while visiting my parents, and saw that she had lost an amazing amount of weight. When I asked her what had finally worked, she said: “I just decided to stick with the diet, regardless of the immediate lack of reward.” Although she could not see tangible results, she had decided to have faith and continue – the pounds began to melt off, and a new woman, smiling and confident, was born.

Fear of failure is probably the greatest deterrent of going far. We are afraid of not making it, so we don’t even try. Once that fear is conquered, and faith takes over, the worst is done.

The little girl of the story had a special place in the heart for the uncle that encouraged her to climb the tree house and she will always know that when she is scared of anything, she can think of that beautiful, sunny day. I am certain her uncle, who recently passed away, is smiling down at her from the top of the tree house, proud of all she has conquered. In fact, I think he is doing that right now.

Reaching for the Moon

“Far away in the sunshine are my highest aspirations. I may not reach them, but I can look up and see their beauty, believe in them, and try to follow where they lead.” ~ Louisa May Alcott

When I was a young girl, my family and I lived in a high-rise apartment building in the heart of the city. I loved sitting on the balcony at night, when the noise from the street had finally quieted down and the horizon came to life as a parade of lights. I especially loved to sit out there when the moon was full, since I find very few things to be as impressive and mystical as the jolly, tangerine-hued face of the moon peeking through the buildings. One night, it looked so big that I distinctly remember thinking I could touch it if I just reached far enough.

Although touching the moon was not an option, I still enjoyed the feeling of peace and the pale light which seemed to enshroud everything in a silvery cloak of dreams and magic.

Not everyone dreams of touching the moon, but most of us set goals for ourselves. Some of the goals are little more than a speck of hope in the far distance, while some others are immediate plans we set out to achieve in our daily lives. Regardless of how practical, unthinkable, big or small our goals are, they can be achieved. If someone has reached them before us, it only means that a door must exist to get there. It may not be the first one we knock on, or even the second or third ones, but a path to our dreams certainly exists, if we are willing to put in the footwork to find it.

I remember having this conversation with my son, one night, while he was telling me about his passion for drumming. He felt that becoming a professional drummer is an impossible dream and he should focus on something more “concrete”. Given that he was raised by me, I was speechless…impossible? Nothing is impossible. The road might be rocky, and the journey a rough one, but if one has a clear destination in mind, going from point A to point B can definitely be in the cards.

Sticking with a personal goal is simpler than most think, as long as we realize that initial failure is nothing more than a stepping stone toward future success. An old proverb even states that we should fall seven times and get up eight.

Short-term goals are probably the hardest ones to keep up with, as what motivates us to achieve them rarely originates in the fire of an individual’s inner passion; our resolve can easily deflate and we lose our momentum. By setting small goals and working toward them, we raise our inner bar of self-discipline, and through the joy of humble victories along the way we train for the marathon of touching the moon.

We don’t need to set our goals into the future – today is as good a day as any to get motivated, set goals, and begin to make changes, even if small ones. After all, all great runners started once by learning how to put one foot in front of the other. Time and persistence did the rest.