“Failure” is tricky, because too often it is those

                            who fail to see aptitude in others who have failed. 

                       In times of disappointment, hang tough and don’t let someone

                            with poor judgement define you. 

                       Here are a few examples to reassure you

                            that you are in good company.        Kathleen Reiland

Staying Motivated While Searching for a New Career:

The Failure List:  The following failure list, distributed to players for many years by former basketball coaches Don Meyer and David Lipscomb, was contained in a recent Ann Landers column, with the object of Inspiring confidence in those who needed it.

Here it is:

• Einstein was 4 years old before he could speak.

• Isaac Newton did poorly in grade school and was considered “unpromising.”

• Beethoven’s music teacher once said of him, “As a composer, he is hopeless,”

• When Thomas Edison was a youngster, his teacher told him he was too stupid to learn anything.  He was counseled to go         into a field where he might succeed by virtue of this pleasant personality.

• F.W. Woolworth got a job in a dry goods store when he was 21, but his employer would not permit him to wait on customers because he “didn’t have enough sense to close a sale.”

• Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team.  Boston Celtics Hall of Famer Bob Cousy suffered the same fate.

• A newspaper editor fired Walt Disney because he “lacked imagination and had no good ideas.”

• Winston Churchill failed sixth grade and had to repeat it because he did not complete the tests that were required for promotion.

• Babe Ruth struck out 1,300 times, a major league record.  He was also the most notorious womanizer in the sports world.

We can all probably add more names to this list of “failure.”  The moral is that a person may make mistakes, be a slow starter or in the wrong job, but isn’t a failure until he (or she) starts blaming someone else.  We must believe in ourselves, and somewhere along the road of life, we must meet someone who sees greatness in us, expects it from us, and lets us know it.  It is the golden key to success.

                                                                                                        Cam Report, February 15, 2001