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Jim's Gems

Success

By Jim L. Smith
JimGems
October 19, 2021

Most everyone spends a lot of time thinking of failure or fear of failure? The following is something I have used during my professional and personal life which still makes a lot of sense.

What happened in our previous attempts to get something done does not really matter that much. What does matter most is what we do now that counts.

Certainly, we may have previously failed many times, but that has little bearing on what we choose to do now. As it turns out, each failed attempt increases our probability of success.

Thomas Edison, the late famed inventor and businessman, discovered that knowing what does not work can be very powerful. Edison discovered the incandescent light bulb, supposedly on his 10,000th attempt. Edison’s view was that he did not fail the previous 9,999 times, because he was successful in discovering what would not work.

When things do not work, and we can find out why they did not work, we have critical information. The more we have invested in any objective, like Edison inventing the first practical light bulb, the more motivated we should be to make it succeed.

Honest effort will be rewarded. It is never wasted, even when it leads to less than satisfactory results. This effort will always make us stronger, more capable, and more experienced.

There is no time like the present to make use of all that strength and experience. Now is the time to move forward with more commitment and confidence than ever before.

We should take great satisfaction in where we have been and in how far we have come. Success is but a journey and it is more about hanging on after others have let go.

We need to strive to become the master of our own destiny, or it will master us.

Think about it…

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Qm0222 clmn face p2 author jim smith

Jim L. Smith has more than 45 years of industry experience in operations, engineering, research and development and quality management. You can reach Jim at [email protected]

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