Thomas Edison failed 1,000 times before creating the lightbulb.
Although the exact number of tries has been debated, ranging from 1,000 to 10,000 attempts, it’s safe to say Edison tried and failed a whole lot before he successfully created his beacon of light. His response to his repeated failures? “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”
Did you know Bill Gates’ first business failed.
It’s true. The richest person in the whole world couldn’t make any money at first. Gates’ first company, Traf-O-Data (which was a device that could read traffic tapes and process the data), failed miserably. But Gates and his partner Allen didn’t let that stop them from trying again. Here’s how Allen explained how the failure helped them: ” Even though traff-o- data wasn’t a roaring success, it was pivotal in preparing us to make Microsoft’s first product a couple years later “
Did you know Stephen King’s first novel was rejected 30 times.
If it weren’t for King’s wife, “Carrie” may not have ever existed. After being consistently rejected by publishing houses, King gave up and threw his first book in the trash. His wife, Tabitha, retrieved the manuscript and urged King to finish it. Now, King’s books have sold over 350 million copies and have been made into countless major motion pictures.
Albert Einstein didn’t speak until he was four years old.
Einstein didn’t have the best childhood. In fact, many people thought he was just a dud. He never spoke for the first three years of his life, and throughout elementary school, many of his teachers thought he was lazy and wouldn’t make anything of himself. He always received good marks, but his head was in the clouds, conjuring up abstract questions people couldn’t understand. But he kept thinking and, well, he eventually developed the theory of relativity, which many of us still can’t wrap our heads around.
There are examples throughout history of people who initially struggled with challenges they eventually mastered and became well known for fabulous accomplishments’.
For those of us who reach our point of fatigue which we think is reason to stop and do something else instead, Remember that it’s that point in our own history that is actually marking the 5 minute point that is Just Before the Breakthrough.
