“Definition of success is going from one failure to another without losing enthusiasm.”
-Winston Churchill
Ran across this bad boy the other day and figured it was well worth a Daily Hustle.
What’s amazing is that in this self-help world that we live in, we all have our own definition of success and rightfully so.
If it’s your desire to measure success by the size of your bank account or the size of your trophy case, that’s up to you…
Personally, I prefer to subscribe to the John Wooden model which says:
“Success is a peace of mind which is a direct result of self satisfaction in knowing you did your best to become the very best you are capable of becoming.”
Simply put, so long as we work our asses off and understand that we did everything in our power to become our absolute best, we have succeeded.
Ok, so what about Churchill’s gem…
We all know that failure is part of the process, and no matter who you are, it is unavoidable…
Two of the greatest renaissance men and inventors of all time, Ben Franklin and Thomas Edison, were both notorious for their repeated failures… So much so they are repeatedly quoted in regards to the issue with Franklin turning in this beaut:
“Do not fear mistakes. You will know failure. Continue to reach out.”
Edison preferred to approach the idea of failure a little differently, yet still had an incredibly optimistic mindset when breaching the subject:
“I have not failed, I have just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”
Michael Jordan got cut from his highschool varsity basketball team…
Tom Brady was the backup quarterback on his Serra High School Freshman football team… The best record he turned in as the starting QB in high school was 6-6.
When Brady went to Michigan, he sat behind several dudes for 3 years before finally getting a chance to play…
And oh yea, there were also 198 players taken in the NFL draft before what many consider the “greatest quarterback of all time” was selected.
Yes, we know he has won 6 Super Bowls, but he has also lost 3.
Of course, as our favorite Rough Rider Teddy Roosevelt reminds us:
“There is no success without shortcomings.”
Steve Jobs, Larry Ellison, Richard Branson and Elon Musk all have extensive stories of repeated failures…
Life is full of amazing examples of incredibly successful people whose life has essentially been predicated on failure… Not shocking is how many of these tales sound eerily similar.
Somebody fails then decides that they need to find a way to work harder, smarter and more efficiently than ever before… They may fail again, but along the way, they continue to accumulate knowledge and experience that allows them to enthusiastically move on to what’s next…
Next thing you know, they become founding fathers, invent the light bulb, build computers, create global empires, get everybody in the Bay Area to own Tesla’s, send random dudes to space and win 6 NBA championships & Super Bowls…
And just as our dude Churchill points out, the only way any of this was accomplished was by ‘going from one failure to another WITHOUT losing enthusiasm.’
-EB