Musings on Leadership

Jennifer I. Lim, actress and author, has a quote I just stumbled across today. “ Mistakes are proof that you are trying. ” I LOVE THAT! If you keep doing the same things you’ve always done - you’ll keep getting the same results you’ve always gotten. If you want to grow, then you need to try new things, or try doing things in a new way. Thomas Edison allegedly made 1,000 mistakes before he invented the light bulb. It’s not that he made mistakes, it’s that he persevered. Abraham Lincoln made mistake after mistake, suffered failure after failure, until he was finally elected President of the United States at a pivotal point in our country’s history. He persevered and, as a result, secured his legacy as one of this country’s greatest Presidents. So get out there and make a mistake today. And keep making mistakes until you’re a success!

Maybe you haven’t achieved the success at work, diet and exercise, or in your relationships, that you’d like. If that’s the case, then you need to try something new. The challenge is that trying new, unfamiliar things, carries with it the possibility of failure. No one LIKES to fail. Everyone WANTS to succeed. Failure doesn’t have to be a bad thing. Failing doesn’t make you any less intelligent. It doesn’t make you any less capable. It doesn’t make you a loser. It simply means you tried something and it didn’t work out. Move on and try something else. History is filled with famous “failures”. It took Thomas Edison over 1,000 attempts to make a light bulb that worked. Have you ever looked at Abraham Lincoln’s list of failures? 1831 - Lost his job. 1832 - Defeated in his run for the Illinois state legislature. 1833 - Failed in business. 1835 - His sweetheart died. 1836 - Had a nervous breakdown. 1838 - Defeated in his run for Illinois House Speaker. 1843 - Defeated in a ...