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Angry Birds, the incredibly popular game, was software maker
Rovio’s 52nd attempt. They spent eight years and nearly went bankrupt
before finally creating their massive hit.
Pinterest is one of the fastest-growing websites
in history, but struggled for a long time. Pinterest’s CEO recently
said that it had “catastrophically small numbers” in its first year
after launch and that if he had listened to popular startup advice he
probably would have quit.
James Dyson failed in 5,126 prototypes
before perfecting his revolutionary vacuum cleaner. Groupon was put on
life support and nearly shut down at one point in its meteoric rise.
When
looking at the most successful people and organizations, we often
imagine geniuses with a smooth journey straight to the promised land.
But when you really examine nearly every success story, they are filled
with crushing defeats, near-death experiences, and countless setbacks.
We
often celebrate companies and individuals once they've achieved
undeniable success, but shun their disruptive thinking before reaching
such a pinnacle. Before Oprah was Oprah, before Jobs was Jobs, they were
labeled as misguided dreamers rather than future captains of industry.
In
your life, you've probably had a setback or two. When you stumble, it's
tempting the throw in the towel and accept defeat. There's always an
attractive excuse waiting eagerly, hoping you'll take the easy way out.
But the most successful people forge ahead. They realize that mistakes
are simply data, providing new information to adjust your approach going
forward.
The ubiquitous WD-40 lubricant got its name because the
first 39 experiments failed. WD-40 literally stands for “Water
Displacement--40th Attempt.” If they gave up early on like most of us
do, we'd sure have a lot more squeaky hinges in the world.
You
have a mission to accomplish and an enormous impact to make. You will
inevitably endure some "failures" along your journey, but you must
realize that persistence and determination have always been primary
ingredients in accomplishment.
Don't cave to your mistakes,
embrace them. In fact, mistakes are simply to the portals of discovery.
There's an old saying that "every bull’s-eye is the result of a hundred
misses." So the next time you feel the sting of failure, just realize
you're likely one shot closer to hitting your target.
And who
knows? Maybe after a few dozen failures and months or years of hard
work, you might just be that next "overnight" success.
For more insight on creativity and innovation, visit joshlinkner.com.
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