Hi

I read lots of books. I mean L-O-T-S. In each book I inevitably discover a hidden gem, or two. On this blog, I will often mention a truly special article. There is a book by Paul Arden, called “It’s not how GOOD you are, it’s how GOOD you want to be”.

The following italised text is a direct quote from pades 50 and 51 of the book….

The Perosn who doesn’t make mistakes is unlikely to make anything.

Benjamin Franklin said, ‘I haven’t failed, I’ve had 10,000 ideas that didn’t work.’ Thomas Edison said, ‘Of the 200 light bulbs that didn’t work, every failure told me something that I was able to incorporate into the next attempt.’

Theatre director Joan Littlewood said. ‘If we don’t get lost, we’ll never find a new route.’

All of them understood that failures and false starts are a precondition of success. At the last compnay I worked for you would not be fired for being wrong, but you would be fired for not having initiatuve. It had a positive attitude to mistakes. It was a great company. Failure was a major contributor to it’s success.

You may have noticed that the spelling in the headline is incorrect. This was not an intentional idea. Lucinda made a typing error. IT was fortuitous that it happened on this page.

How often in life do we not attempt something because we fear making a mistake? What if we did it anyway, and learnt from our venture, and improved on the next go. Sylvester Stallone wrote the script for Rocky in three days, but  although a strong story, many studios declined to accept the script because of Stallone’s stipulation that he be the star and recieve a share of the profits. Eventually, Producers Irwin Winkler and Robert Chartoff accepted Stallone’s terms and Rocky was the box office hit of 1976. Perseverance paid off for him.

Ask yourself, as I do - Looking at Edison working on 200 light bulbs, Stallone receiving rejection after rejection, what makes one or two rejections that bad to me? Can I correct it, adjust it, revise it, redo it, change it? What can I do so that next time it gets closer to what I want. Have the end goal in sight and keep working on it. Where would we be today if Edison had given up? (Well, I wouldn’t be typing this with the lights on. lol)

Also remember, you are not alone, I am here to work with you to reach your goals and dreams - Never give up!

Helen

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