THE VALUE OF FAILURE

NASA famously has the motto "Failure is not an option". But before NASA put men on the moon, they failed and failed and failed, most tragically with the deaths of Astronauts Gus Grissom,  Ed White, and Roger Chaffee. And of course NASA lost two Shuttles and crews to explosions during the shuttle program. 

There is a basketball player who, in his long career missed over 9000 shots, lost over three hundred games, missed 26 game winning shots. In his own book he wrote “I’ve failed over and over and over.”

There are a couple of failed candidates I have always been interested in. One  political failure lost his first race at age 23 for the state legislature and then  lost his two runs  for the senate.

Another political failure I have followed couldn’t pass the physical at West Point,  dropped out of a two year business college, left a low paying bank job, ran his family farm into the ground, failed at mining, and  failed at an oil business. He went to war, where he did an adequate job, returned, opened a clothing store which failed and left him and his partner deep in debt.

Another failure was labeled as retarded (the current correct term is "Intellectually disabled")  when he was an infant. He didn’t speak until he was four or read until he was seven.

The above people I am referring to are Michael Jordan, Abraham Lincoln, Harry Truman, and Albert Einstein.

Henry Ford said "failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently."

As a young prosecutor I lost my first two jury trials. And then won about 95 or so out of the next 100.

Failure has value.

This computer programmer’s first project was : “Traf-O-Data”- it was a machine designed to read traffic data real time and created reports for traffic engineers. The machine didn’t work at the  demo for the County he and his partner were trying to sell it to.

His next presentation to investors was for a company called…..Microsoft. Bill Gates and Paul Allen did a bit better on their second professional presentation.

Sir John Dyson is worth 3 billion dollars for the vacuum he invented When he made his 15^th prototype of the vaccum, his third child was born. By prototype 2,627, he and his wife had to empty a change jar to buy food at the end of the month. By prototype 3,727 his wife had an extra job giving art lessons. But by prototype 5,127- which took him 15 years to reach, he had invented cyclonic vaccuming, which is why his vaccums don’t need bags: “These were tough times, but each failure brought me closer to solving the problem.’”

Thomas Edison said “I haven’t failed. I’ve just discovered ten thousand ways which won’t work.”

I once heard a college basketball coach say that he was quitting because while he won many games he couldn't remember, he remembered each loss in vivid detail.

When I fail, people go to jail. When I represent people charged with murder facing the death penalty and I fail, my client is executed (thankfully that has never happened and won't as long as I keep on top of my game.) 

 Steve Jobs was kicked out of Apple for the computer LISA that he developed that was a massive flop.

When he returned he  oversaw the introduction of the Ipod, Ipad, Iphone, and made this an "I" society.

I identify with the college coach. I will often run into a judge or prosecutor and they will reminisce about a case we tried where I won. Many times the details are fuzzy. But I know the name of every client whose trial I lost when I walk in to that courtroom in the Miami Criminal Courthouse (which we call the Richard E Gerstein Justice Building or REGJB). It's like a reoccurring nightmare that never goes away. I even remember the worst loss I had as a prosecutor. A DUI serious injury case. Judge Murphy is in the courtroom on the second floor now. It happened around 1989 and it still makes me sick. 

However, failure is the most valuable lesson for me. When I fail, I try and examine everything I did, so I do not repeat the same mistake twice. 

But when I fail, when the clerk says the word "guilty" without the word "not" in front of it, and my stomach sinks, and that horrible feeling floods every cell of my body, I try and take solace in two measures of wisdom. I read Theodore Roosevelt's "Citizenship in the Republic" which is now better known as the "The Man In the Arena" speech, which I have highlighted with a link. It is worth a read. 

And I remember this: 

The measure of a person is not how many times they are knocked down; the measure of a person is how many times they get back up.

PLR.