Have you ever pursued a dream/goal you had in mind, but after one failure…gave up?  Has anyone ever told you to give up on “that”, because you are not cut out for it?  Do you have things in mind that you want to accomplish, but are afraid to take that step?

Whatever your skills or talents, use them…and don’t give up on them. If you fall, get up again and keep pressing on. Only through perseverance can you stay on the right path and achieve all of your goals and the goals of your team. As a manager, remember that just because one of your folks failed in a specific area, doesn’t mean that they can’t regroup and face the future challenges ahead. Don’t give up on them. Below are some great examples of very famous people who failed, but didn’t give up. In those examples are managers who gave up on their people, after one failure. Where would we be today if these people gave up on their dreams, their goals? Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said “The measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of convenience, but where he stands in times of challenge and adversity.” Remember that the greater the journey, and the bigger the challenge, the more you have to be committed, and ready to take them on. The potential for long term greatness is living within you; the key is finding it, and sticking with it so you can achieve the dreams you have in mind.

– Walt Disney was fired by a newspaper editor because “he lacked imagination and had no good ideas.” He went bankrupt several times before he built Disneyland. In fact, the proposed park was rejected by the city of Anaheim on the grounds that it would only attract riffraff.

– When Lucille Ball began studying to be actress in 1927, she was told by the head instructor of the John Murray Anderson Drama School, “Try any other profession.”

– 27 publishers rejected Dr. Seuss’s first book, To Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street

– As a young man, Abraham Lincoln went to war a captain and returned a private. Afterwards, he was a failure as a businessman. As a lawyer in Springfield, he was too impractical and temperamental to be a success. He turned to politics and was defeated in his first try for the legislature, again defeated in his first attempt to be nominated for congress, defeated in his application to be commissioner of the General Land Office, defeated in the senatorial election of 1854, defeated in his efforts for the vice-presidency in 1856, and defeated in the senatorial election of 1858. At about that time, he wrote in a letter to a friend, “I am now the most miserable man living. If what I feel were equally distributed to the whole human family, there would not be one cheerful face on the earth.”

– R. H. Macy failed seven times before his store in New York City caught on.

– Tom Landry, Chuck Noll, Bill Walsh, and Jimmy Johnson accounted for 11 of the 19 Super Bowl victories from 1974 to 1993. They also share the distinction of having the worst records of first-season head coaches in NFL history – they didn’t win a single game.

– Beethoven handled the violin awkwardly and preferred playing his own compositions instead of improving his technique. His teacher called him “hopeless as a composer.” And, of course, you know that he wrote five of his greatest symphonies while completely deaf.

– Van Gogh sold only one painting during his life. And this to the sister of one of his friends for 400 francs (approximately $50). This didn’t stop him from completing over 800 paintings.

“Little minds are tamed and subdued by misfortune; but great minds rise above them.”
~ Washington Irving