Setbacks don’t have to be stopping points
Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.
-Thomas Edison
I don’t know about you, but that quote rings true for me — especially the second half. I was in a musical about Thomas Edison as a young child, and what impressed me even then was just how much he tried, and kept right on trying, despite what seemed like failure after failure. (He tried thousands of different types of filaments before coming up with one that would work for the light bulb, but only saw those as ones that didn’t work — not failures.)
What if we all viewed things like that?
Instead of beating ourselves up because something we tried “failed”, we noted that “oh well, that didn’t work” and went on to try again until we found something that did?
In the case of making money or reducing debt, sometimes what we try WILL work (even if it doesn’t at first) if we just keep on trying. Don’t let setbacks become permanent stopping points.
December 17th, 2008 at 8:36 am
I read a quote from Thomas Edison that said something like: I didn’t fail 2,000 times before inventing the light bulb. Inventing the light bulb is just a 2,000 step process.
December 17th, 2008 at 11:26 am
Agree, setbacks are a way to educate ourselves. We take a look at what we did and learn from the mistakes to improve on the future decisions we can make.
December 17th, 2008 at 1:03 pm
Setbacks are great learning experiences.
Everything is a setback until you succeed.
They are annoying, though.
December 18th, 2008 at 5:58 am
This reminds me of writers submitting their stories/novels to be published. More times than not, the people that get their work published are the ones that have a system and don’t get discouraged. Talent has something to do with it, but it’s persistence that eventually pays off.
Some writers hate to think that someone with an excel spreadsheet and unlimited persistence will get published before them (what with their incredible talent), but that’s exactly how it works out.
One more thing: not succeeding right away gives you a chance to put your creativity to work. How can you solve this problem? How many possible solutions can you come up with? Etc.