“I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot, and missed. I’ve failed over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”
Michael Jordan.
Cut from his high school basketball team.
Designated ACC freshman of the year at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and holds a championship title from 1982. As a professional he claims 5 MVP awards, ten All-NBA first time designations, and possesses the NBA record for highest career regular season scoring average.
Today the phrase “Air Jordan” is blatantly perceived.
NBA legend, inspiration, successor.
Cut from his high school basketball team.
“I’ve not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that don’t work.”
Albert Einstein
A teacher once articulated that he was “slow and mentally handicapped.”
Won the nobel prize in 1921, as a result of a physics paper that contained the theory e=mc2.
Offered presidency of Israel in 1952, wrote a letter to President Roosevelt that started the Manhattan Project fostering the atomic bomb. Ceasing WWII.
Today Einstein is appraised a verb for the “very, intelligent person.”
Ingenious physicist, cunning mathematician, and shrewd thinker.
A teacher once told him he was “slow and mentally handicapped.”
“Failure is inevitable. Success is elusive.”
Steven Spielberg.
Rejected from his dream school. USC. Twice. Subsequently he went to The University of California, Long Beach. And dropped out.
In 1974 his movie Jaws emerged as one of the highest grossing movies ever. Won an academy award for best director. Net of his films worldwide is estimated to be 8.5 billion dollars. Forbes catalogued his wealth at 3 billion.
Undoubtedly one of the most influential film personalities in history.
Rejected from his dream school. USC. Twice. Subsequently he went to the University of California, Long Beach. And dropped out.
Winston Churchill.
Failed the 6th grade.
Marilyn Monroe.
Summoned she didn’t have the beauty.
Walt Disney.
Fired from a newspaper because he “lacked imagination and new ideas.”
Dick Cheney.
Dropped out of Yale. Twice.
Dr. Seuss.
Forsaken from 27 different publishers.
Henry Ford.
First auto company went out of business.
Sir James Dyson.
Withstood 5,126 vacuum prototypes.
J.K. Rowling
Unemployed, divorced, and raising a daughter as a single parent on social security while writing her first book.
Babe Ruth.
Struck out 1,330 times.
Jerry Seinfeld.
Booed offstage.
Thomas Edison.
Teacher advised he was “too stupid to learn anything.”
Why?
Why is failure undervalued.
Belittled.
Despised.
And neglected.
Why if I fail am I designated
A failure?
Why if I don’t try I’m “giving up” but if I try and don’t succeed
I’ve failed?
Why?
Why do we grow up as children envisioning the so called “impossible” arising with hopes as high as our ambitions, picturing ourselves dignifiedly sitting in the Oval Office- fabricating executive decisions, all while alluding the “big red button” innocently, tempting us. We crave to be crime fighting superheroes abolishing all the worlds evil, soaring through the crisp blue sky. We dream of being glamorous movie stars sulking up the fame on the red carpet captured by dozens of white flashes, flawlessly exhibiting alluring smiles.
But then all of those dreams, they suddenly
Stop.
Stop dead in their tracks.
Stop cold in the paths.
Stop instantaneously without warning.
Why as a teeanger are those ambitions squashed into realistic dreams only to be crafted into “Reality” by our teachers, parents, counselors, and anyone who has the courage to ask,
“So what do you wanna do when you grow up?”
That question seems loaded.
The response seems to embody to your audience.
Mom wants you to be a Lawyer,
Dad wants you to be Scientist,
Grandpa wants you to be a doctor,
So then why right now,
As a teenager am I deliberated
Not smart enough.
Not old enough.
Not good enough.
Not important enough.
Not enough.
Why?
Why if I stay up till 3 A.M. studying and fail.
The teacher looks the other way.
They say you just didn’t try hard enough.
Why do I get looks from elders when I articulate a question and they respond “you wouldn’t understand.”
Why if I’m cut from a sports team I’m promptly asked with such fury what other sport I would want to play.
Why do they ultimately say i’m just not good enough.
So let me ask you,
What if failure is just my fuel to succeed.
What if the mistakes I make just create more passion and desire.
What if the opportunities I miss are silently preparing me for the next.
What if you told me I would never be good enough.
But I was.
These words have the power to inspire. Thank you for the inspiration to take chances.
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