What is “holding you back” from creating the life of your dreams?Have you “failed” in the past? Or, are you just scared to try anything because you might “fail”?Throughout history, there have been thousands of famous failures.Let’s take a look at some very successful failures and see what we can learn from their stories.Abraham Lincoln | | Born in 1809, Abraham Lincoln is famously known for being the 16th President of the United States.
He was a champion of equal rights, and he blazed a trail towards the freedom of slaves in America.
But Lincoln didn’t start out as a success story.
He failed numerous times before attaining the highest office in the land.
In 1832, when he was 23-years old, Lincoln lost his job.
At the same time, he also lost his bid for State Legislature.
Just 3 years later, at the age of 26, the love of his life, Ann Rutledge died.
Another three years later? He lost his bid to become Speaker in the Illinois House of Representatives.
In 1848, at the age of 39-years old, Lincoln also failed in his bid to become Commissioner of the General Land Office in D.C.
Ten years after that, at the age of 49-years old, he was defeated in his quest to become a U.S. Senator.
Of course, through all the personal, business and political failures, Lincoln didn’t give up.
In 1846, Lincoln was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives where he drafted a bill to abolish slavery.
In 1861, at the age of 52, he secured the office of President of the United States and has since become one of the most famous failures to ever hold office in the United States.
His face also appears on the U.S. five-dollar bill.
| | Born in Greenfield Township, Michigan, in 1863, Henry Ford was the industrialist who started Ford Motor Company, which has been one of the most profitable automotive companies in the world over the years, making him into one of the most richest and famous individuals on the planet.
However, while Ford celebrated many successes later on in life, he also failed often in his earlier years.
In fact, it wasn’t until 1891, when Ford was 28-years old, that he decided to become an engineer, working for the Edison Illuminating Company and earning a promotion in 1893 at the age of 30, to Chief Engineer.
It was around this time when he started experimenting with gasoline engines.
However, it wasn’t until 1898, when Ford was 35-years old, when he designed and built a self-propelled vehicle that he showed off to people, winning the backing of William H. Murphy, who, at the time, was a lumber baron in Detroit.
Subsequently, Ford founded the Detroit Automobile Company a year later in 1899.
In 1901, however, that company failed after an inability to pay back a loan to the Dodge brothers and due to inefficiencies in the design of the vehicle; the company ceased operations, dealing a stealthy blow to Ford.
However, subsequently, Ford convinced one of this partners to give him another chance.
With mounting pressure, it was agreed that he would try again.
But after disagreements, this venture also flopped.
It wasn’t until 1903, when Ford would give it one final shot.
At the age of 40-years old, after two separate failures, he tried again, incorporating the Ford Motor Company.
Even after the failures, Ford found an unconventional backer who he made agree not to meddle in the business.
He found this in Malcolmson, a Scottish immigrant who had made his fortune in the coal industry.
Afterwards, what transpired is one of the most famous stories of an individual who went from failure to success in the grandest way.
The Ford name is synonymous with the automobile.
In fact, while the assembly line existed prior to Ford’s arrival on the scene, he was the first to use it to create a car that was affordable for the everyday family.
He helped to develop what was to become the largest boon in the automotive industry with cars everywhere. Oprah Winfrey | | Oprah Winfrey was born in 1954 in Kosciusko, Mississippi to a single teenaged mother.
Winfrey grew up in a sheer state of utter poverty for most of her childhood life, living with her grandmother during those years.
When she was 6-years old, she moved in with her mother in Wisconsin, about the time her mother had another daughter, becoming Winfrey’s half-sister.
During those early years, Winfrey says she was sexually molested by her cousin, her uncle and a family friend.
At the age of 13-years old, she ran away from home.
At 14-years old, she was pregnant and gave birth prematurely to a baby that died shortly after birth.
At the age of 17-years old, she won a beauty pageant and interned at a radio station, creating a love for the media, and eventually landing a job after college as a news anchor in Nashville.
After college, she moved to Baltimore to co-anchor the news, but was later removed by the producer for being unfit for television.
In 1983, at the age of 29-years old, she relocated to Chicago and took over a fledgling show called, AM Chicago, which would ultimately become the, Oprah Winfrey Show.
She became the highest-ranked talkshow in Chicago.
Today, she is a multi-billionaire and has had a major impact on a large part of world.
Oprah was able to overcome multiple failures in her life, but didn’t give up.
Because of it, she reached international fame and is known around the world as a household name.
| | Born in 1874, Winston Churchill is famously known as being the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice.
The first time was from May 1940 through July 1945 and then again from October 26th, 1951 through April 6th, 1955.
He often credited with several very popular quotes about failure such as:
“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts,” and, “Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.”
In 1893, Churchill applied to attend the Royal Military College in Sandhurst.
He failed that exam 2 times, and on the third try, he succeeded, but only after changing from the infantry division to the cavalry division, which had a lower threshold for entrance.
However, he excelled during his tenure there.
During his political career, he lost a total of 5 elections, including his very first one, which included three elections in a row during the years of 1922 through 1924. Throughout his life, he battled clinical depression.
He also had a severe lateral lisp, and had trouble speaking and making speeches at times, having dentures manufactured to help repair the impediments his speech caused.
He is seen as a victorious wartime leader who played an important role in defending Europe's liberal democracy against the spread of fascism.
However, Churchill was also one of the most successful and renowned politicians to have ever lived. Source – wanderlustworker So, what can we learn from these historical Successful Failures?
They “lost” at many things, yet they kept persevering.
They didn’t give up.
Do you give up when failure strikes?
Or, do you take your failures and find the “silver lining” and learn from the situation?
I hope you take these examples and examine your own life and make any necessary adjustments to turn the corner.
Take these famous Successful Failures and use them to build the desire and determination to “pick yourself up” and keep reaching for your dreams just like Lincoln, Ford, Oprah and Churchill did.
To your future success,
- Duane Eberhard
PS – Watch this video of another Successful Failure. From multiple failures to millionaire. It’s pretty inspiring! |
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