Failure

You know that it has happened to you. You failed. You got discouraged. Maybe you even quit. Better yet, maybe you did not. People think of failure as a bad thing, and in that moment it may be. Here are some examples of famous people who failed, and then I will expand on that.

- Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks opened an animation studio in 1920, and the business collapsed after just one month.

- Jennifer Aniston auditioned to be a member of the Saturday Night Live cast, but she did not make the cut.

- Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team because of his "lack of skill."

- Marilyn Monroe was dropped, just one year into her contract because her producer thought that she was unattractive and could not act.

- Henry Ford had two automobile companies that failed before he incorporated Ford Motor Company.

- Barbra Streisand made her stage debut in a show that closed after one performance.

Albert Einstein, Abraham Lincoln, Soichiro Honda, Fred Astaire, and so many more people about whom you might know failed -- and failed big -- at some point in their lives. There is one thing that you may hope to have in common with all of these people, though. They tried. As a matter of fact, the only possible way for you to fail is to try.

If you do not want to fail, that is easy. Just do not try. Think of it this way: Thomas Edison is said to have done over 9,000 experiments before creating a successfully working light bulb. Do you think that he did the same thing over and over again? No. Of course not. He learned from his experiences, tried different things, and kept going.

YOU can do the same thing. When you fail at something, figure out why, learn from it, try again, and keep going. Failure means that an effort was made, that you are doing something to hopefully work toward your success. Good for you! Keep going.