If at first…UPDATED

We’ve probably all heard the old saying, “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.”  In other words, don’t give up.  In the Freaking Great compilation they cover this on two pages which face each other.

The page on the left actually repeats the first part of the saying I quoted above.  Under that it says, “Some of the world’s most accomplished people experienced overwhelming failure before finding incredible success”.

Below that it lists five people, most of whom you may recognize.  I’ll give you the first one:

• Thomas Edison had about 1,000 failed attempts before inventing the light bulb.

Is it true?  I don’t know.  However, having heard various versions of this over the years, from multiple sources I’d guess it is.

Who else do you think is on the list of folks who failed before succeeding?  I’ll give you some time to guess and tomorrow (or maybe the next day) I’ll update this post to list them.

Got your thinking caps on?

The others on the list who tried and failed before succeeding might surprise you.  Did you know Dr. Seuss’s first book was rejected by 27 publishers?  Or that Lucille Ball was known as the “Queen of B Movies” before I Love Lucy?  Then, there’s James Dyson.  I can hear you wondering “who?”  Me too.  James Dyson created 5,126 failed prototypes for his bagless vacuum before getting it right.  Finally, Michael Jordan of all people was cut from his high school basketball team!  

One of my commenters yesterday made a good point about “try, try again” being less than ideal in some situations.  I agreed with her.  I really like it when the comments give me something to think about.  Thanks!