If I could give just one characteristic to my children, it would be persistence. -Thomas Jefferson Now I am pretty sure he did not mean to keep doing stupid things or trying the same, failed idea over and over, but instead, to not give up just because you failed. At one point, NASA (before it was NASA) was called to the carpet, before congress to explain the comment made by the director that We have made over 20,000 mistakes. The politicians angrily and condescendingly wanted to know why they were making so many mistakes. The answer was that the Soviets were ahead of us. They had made about 60,000 mistakes and like us, had solved each one and had moved on. We needed to make and solve about 120,000 more mistakes before we would be ready for the moon. See how far ahead the Russians were? The Russians were persistent and focused on the goal. We were being hamstrung by people telling us it was not okay to make mistakes. Eventually the politicians understood the dire need for MORE MISTAKES and funded the moon programs enough to make a landing possible. Dont be afraid of making mistakes It is okay to step away from your bicycle and say Okay. I did that totally wrong. But you will NEVER learn that trick or that technique if you dont look down at your scuffed knee, rub some dirt on it and get back on your bike for a second try. It is okay to tell yourself Toughen up buttercup., straighten out your handlebars, wrench the seat straight (-ish) and go again. You will never be amazing, or even competent, if you dont get back on that bike and fail and fail again. Eventually you will have made every mistake you needed to make in order to succeed. Its probably the same with life...
Posted on: Mon, 21 Apr 2014 14:14:24 +0000