Breakfast of Failures
Breakfast of Failures
by Sharif Khan
“If you want to increase your success rate, double your failure rate.”
–Thomas Watson, Sr. Founder of IBM
Before the Breakfast of Champions - there was the Breakfast of Failures:
. C.S. Lewis (The Chronicles of Narnia) had over 800 rejections before
he sold even one piece of writing.
. Oprah Winfrey was not deterred when she got fired from her television
reporter’s job being told, “You’re not fit for TV.”
. Og Mandino (The Greatest Salesman in the World) had lost his family to
drink and became a homeless person before becoming an inspirational
bestselling author selling over 30 million books.
. Marie Curie, recipient of two Nobel Prizes once said, “I tried out
various experiments.and the results were sometimes unexpected. At times
I would be encouraged by a little unhoped-for success, at others I would
be in the deepest despair because of accidents and failures resulting
from my inexperience.I was taught that the way of progress is neither
swift nor easy.”
. Bill Gates and Michael Dell were college drop-outs.
. Babe Ruth had more strike-outs then any other baseball player of his
time. He also had the most home runs.
. Ann Bancroft, the first woman to travel across the ice to the North
Pole, reminisced later about not reaching a goal to cover 2,300 miles
across Antarctica (bad weather forced them to be airlifted off) on an
expedition with her sister: “Once again this [expedition] is another
successful failure.”
. After auditioning for his band, musician Eddie Bond told a young Elvis
Presley to “Stick to driving a truck, because you’ll never make it as a
singer.”
. Abe Lincoln lost his job and his sweetheart, failed miserably in
business, was defeated for state legislature, had a nervous breakdown,
was defeated for nomination for congress, lost the renomination, was
defeated for US Senate, defeated for nomination of Vice President, and
again defeated for US Senate, before being elected as the sixteenth
President of the United States.
Forget about living a ‘comfortable’ life. I’m not interested in the
items you’ve crossed off your to-do list today. I want to know: have you
failed - I mean really FAILED lately?
Sharif Khan is a professional speaker, writer, coach, and author of
Psychology of the Hero Soul, an inspirational book on awakening the hero
within and developing people’s leadership potential. For more
information, visit http://www.herosoul.com Email: sharif@herosoul.com
Tel:(416) 417-1259. Copyright C 2005 by Sharif Khan.