Failures

World class failures:

* There was a guy, a general, who lost two-thirds of all the battles he fought in the American Revolution. George Washington. He won the war.
* There was another guy who graduated 42nd out of a class of 43. Then he went out and conquered Europe. Napoleon.

* There’s a guy who lost almost every election he ran for – 10 or 12 – until finally he was elected President. Abraham Lincoln. He lost more than he won.

* Edison tried over 200 different elements before he figured out what was the right element to use in the light bulb. Over 200 failures before he had a success.

* In 21 years, Babe Ruth hit 714 home runs but he struck out 1330 times. He struck out nearly twice as often as he hit a home run. He once said, “Never let the fear of striking out keep you from taking a swing.”

* A famous novelist in England, John Creasy, got 753 rejection slips from publishers before he published his first book. He went on to publish 564 books. Can you imagine the persistence of the man putting up with over 700 rejections before his first book got published and then went on in his lifetime to publish 500 more?

* R.P. Macy failed seven times as an entrepreneur in retailing and then he started Macy’s department store.

It’s always too soon to quit. The Bible says we need to stop making excuses, admit when it’s our fault and get on with life. I’ve discovered that people who are very good at making excuses are rarely good at anything else.
–http://www.sermoncentral.com/Illustrations/SearchResults.asp?Keyword=excuses