SubscribePicking Up Yourself from Falls
“Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.” — Thomas A. Edison
A friend shared this in her Facebook profile a few days back and I thought I will share this with you. Something to ponder on over the weekend. Actually it came at the right time when I was thinking of posting something on failure.
I believe that most of us had suffered failures at several points in our lives; although we may not remember all of them. Do You Remember How You Learned to Walk?
Even before you were trying to learn and walk, didn’t you fall down on your bum first? And for me, the first time when I was learning to swim, I almost drowned. Did you almost drown too? The first bicycle ride, I had bad bruises on my knees. Did you have bruises from bicycle ride too?
Something from the Dark Knight, “Why do we fall, Bruce? So we can learn to pick ourselves up.” Such simple and straightforward truth. More often than not, we have made things complicated through our thoughts and analysis. Should we have just learnt from our lessons and moved on. Do we allow ourselves to fall and then not picking ourselves up?
Thomas Alva Edison did not learn to talk until he was almost four years old and in school, his mind often wandered, and his teacher, the Reverend Engle, was overheard calling him “addled.” And that was the end of official schooling for him.
And yet he went on to become an American inventor, scientist and businessman who developed many devices that greatly influenced life around the world. Edison is considered one of the most prolific inventors in history, holding 1,093 U.S. patents in his name, as well as many patents in the United Kingdom, France and Germany (Wikipedia).
Michael Jordan was cut from the varsity team because he was deemed too short to play at that level. He said, “I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. Twenty-six times I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”
Did we just miss how many times Thomas Edison and Michael Jordan had fallen before they raised to greatness? I used to think that they shot to success until I realized how many times they had picked themselves up every time they fell down. As the saying goes, “the greatest glory is not in never falling but picking ourselves up every time we fall.”
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by VanillaSeven, on June 26 2009 @ 8:52 pm
Very inspiring story. We tend to easily give up in front of the challenge while the success most of the time is very near.
by Symphony of Love, on June 27 2009 @ 1:03 am
@ VanillaSeven, indeed, sometimes we gave up just when we were about to be successful.
by Reg Fife, on June 27 2009 @ 1:17 pm
A pretty cool video, but I thought I should mention that the portion regarding Lincoln has less-than accurate info. The article this link disputes the claims that Lincoln “failed in business twice, and lost 8 elections”.
http://www.snopes.com/glurge/lincoln.asp
Reg Fife´s last blog ..Seniors and Swine Flu
by Symphony of Love, on June 27 2009 @ 5:06 pm
@ Reg Fife, thank you for pointing some of the facts about Abraham Lincoln out. Pardon me that I did not verify about the points mentioned in the video. I just did a Google about Abraham Lincoln and Wikipedia goes in line with the link you provided. It is interesting how some simply ‘distorted’ the fact and added colors to them. Although their motive to inspire others is good, to distort it is another issue. Nonetheless, Abraham Lincoln is definitely one of the greatest American Presidents. Thank you once again for taking the time to point them out. Have a great weekend. Anyone interested to find out more about Abraham Lincoln can also check out Wikipedia.
by Cascia @ Healthy Moms, on June 28 2009 @ 5:52 am
That is very inspiring and exactly the kind of motivation I need.
Cascia @ Healthy Moms´s last blog ..Aromatherapy For Breastfeeding Moms
by Symphony of Love, on June 28 2009 @ 7:19 am
@ Cascia, we need to remind each other and give each other a pull or push at time.
by Tellie, on June 28 2009 @ 10:36 am
Awesome video!! It’s always hard to fall short of a goal, but one has to realize that:
“Making your mark on the world is hard. If it were easy, everybody would do it. But it’s not. It takes patience, it takes commitment, and it comes with plenty of failure along the way. The real test is not whether you avoid this failure, because you won’t. it’s whether you let it harden or shame you into inaction, or whether you learn from it; whether you choose to persevere.”
- Barack Obama
Tellie´s last blog ..A Taste of Chicago
by Symphony of Love, on June 28 2009 @ 4:33 pm
@ Tellie, thank you for sharing the quotation from Barack Obama. Indeed, the important is how we choose to react from the failures that we faced.
by Wheng, on June 28 2009 @ 10:01 pm
Very inspiring. It enlightens my mind. I wish I could learn how to pick up the pieces.
by Symphony of Love, on June 28 2009 @ 11:31 pm
@ Wheng, we all learn to pick up the pieces by taking the first step.
by iwalk, on June 29 2009 @ 3:18 am
At least, We should not fall at the same place again.
iwalk´s last blog ..I Wanna Travel To Cambodia With You 
by Symphony of Love, on June 29 2009 @ 4:45 am
@ iwalk, you made perfect sense; if we fall at the same place again, it just means we have never learnt.
by The Fitness Diva, on June 29 2009 @ 5:46 am
Great post! Interesting fact about Michael Jordan. Just shows how much you have to believe in yourself and keep pushing forward, no matter what others tell you!
The Fitness Diva´s last blog ..Look at What I Just Found…. My Michael Jackson Cassette! 
by Symphony of Love, on June 29 2009 @ 8:07 am
@ The Fitness Diva, indeed, a lot of times we have to believe in ourselves and keep pushing forward.
by juliana, on June 29 2009 @ 8:59 pm
this is a very inspiring post.
goals can be achieved with patience and persistence plus the commitment to succeed.
juliana´s last blog ..Nine Years Ago Today
by Symphony of Love, on June 29 2009 @ 10:15 pm
@ Juliana, patience, persistence and commitment; these are the qualities of successful people.
by Tammy, on June 30 2009 @ 5:10 am
Hello po… i won the first prize sa contest ni sis gene
by Symphony of Love, on June 30 2009 @ 6:33 pm
@ Tammy, I have commented in your blog about your prize. Do take a look and send me the information. Thank you and Congrats!
by Liza, on June 30 2009 @ 7:01 pm
Thanks for sharing BK. This is very inspiring.
Moms… Check Nyo
Yummy-as-can-be
Liza´s last blog ..RT | WW - Chinese Girl
by Tammy, on July 1 2009 @ 3:25 am
I tried sending the info but it says, failed permanently raw…
bkchua@symphonyoflove.com <<<< this is the address?
Anyway, dito na lang pwede ?
Title: Anything Under The Sun
Description: It is all about my passion to music, cooking, fine dining, travel and leisure, kids, women and anything under the sun.
Url:
http://www.djtammy.com/
by Symphony of Love, on July 1 2009 @ 4:49 am
@ Liza, you are most welcome.
Tammy, pardon me, it should be .net.
by Greenman, on July 1 2009 @ 5:37 am
Thanks and Congratulations for being one of the TOP DROPPERS in my blog for the month of June! Enjoy!
Greenman´s last blog ..Special Thanks to the June Top Droppers
by Symphony of Love, on July 1 2009 @ 8:33 am
@ Greenman, thank you.
by Maria, on July 1 2009 @ 6:24 pm
Failure teaches us to stand up again and be stronger. Great post BK.
Maria´s last blog ..RT/WW – Abstract
by Symphony of Love, on July 2 2009 @ 12:43 am
@ Maria, thank you. We can learn a lot from failures.
by Chinaren, on July 2 2009 @ 1:46 am
Those apes that picked on the apes in the next territory. You say they eventually took it over. That’s what life is about, surviving and expanding.
I see nothing wrong in that.
We’re all beasts. It’s so called ‘civilization’ that’s artificial.
Chinaren´s last blog ..Pictures that make you go ‘what the…’
by Symphony of Love, on July 2 2009 @ 6:07 am
@ Chinaren, is that really what life is all about? That I don’t know. But to me, life is definitely not just about taking over next territory. Perhaps to you, that is what life is about. And there is nothing wrong for the chimpanzees in the wild to act that way; it is survival for the fittest. Darwin’s theory mentioned something about survival of the fittest and natural selection too.
by sunnymama, on July 8 2009 @ 4:16 pm
Wonderful video! Thanks for posting it
sunnymama´s last blog ..The simple things 
by Symphony of Love, on July 8 2009 @ 4:49 pm
@ Sunnymama, you are most welcome. Glad that you enjoyed the video.
by Ben, on January 12 2010 @ 2:51 pm
Totally. Thomas Edison is one of my models that I try and emulate. His perseverance was amazing. Really good video by the way. In a way it’s kind of depressing though. If even great talents like The Beatles and Michael Jordan didn’t have immediate success, what does that say for the rest of us who probably only have mediocre talent
Ben´s last blog ..More Thoughts on Life From the Mountainside 
by Symphony of Love, on January 12 2010 @ 8:34 pm
@ Ben, perhaps it can be depressing. Mediocre talent or not, Michael Jordan didn’t become the way he is without a lot of hard work. It means that if we work hard … one day we can be really good in what we do too. As Samuel Johnson said, “What we hope ever to do with ease, we must learn first to do with diligence.“