"Success is how high you bounce when you hit bottom." - General Patton
Within every success story there are failures and some more than others: Benjamin Franklin, Albert Einstein, and oh..that light bulb guy named Edison.
After finally succeeding with the light bulb a reporter asked Thomas Edison, "How did it feel to fail 1,000 times?"
Edison's reply, "The light bulb was an invention with 1,000 steps."
Ahh, I love a good quick witty answer. Steps! Edison counted his failures as steps.
Oh, and what about that guy Michael Jordan? He failed, you ask? With all of his success and basketball accolades and being crowned the greatest, Jordan admits failure. Most people don't realize Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team which led to him succeeding. Jordan readily admits, "I've failed over and over and over again in my life and that is why I succeeded."
I recently watched the film Walt Before Disney, the story of the early years of Walt Disney from 1919-1928. I have always loved Disney movies as a kid and have quite the collection in my film library. There have been a few movies telling stories about Walt, but this film specifically touches base with all of his failures or should I say steps to laying the foundation of a mighty empire.
Walt Disney grew up on a farm and to distract himself from farm chores he would sketch farm animals on the sides of the barn, to which his father would scold him with, "You ain't gonna make a living that way son. So it's best you tend to your chores and quit that nonsense of being an artist."
After high school Walt continued his pursuit of animation and opened a studio in his barn. He gathered some friends who were into animation and Disney started a Laugh-O-Gram studio. This film really gives you insight in how cartoons were first developed, which made this an even more enjoyable story.
In this particular era, movie theaters were looking for cartoons to show before the feature film and Disney wanted access to that. He was desperate to succeed quickly and would carelessly sell his work to theaters only at cost, which means no profit, which also means no money to pay his staff or his bills. Walt would then go bankrupt, lose his staff to competition, and find himself homeless.
Disney sold his camera for a train ticket to California where he would still struggle while trying to get a job and get his work into the movie studios. One studio job led to another which in turn would open more doors for him to fulfill his dream.
Walt struggled mightily in those early years but never gave up on his dream, his vision, his desire.
All of his failures were steps just as Thomas Edison referred them as.
One of the most frequent Bible scriptures used by many within their struggles to succeed, comes from Philippians 4, "For I can do everything through Christ who gives me strength."
Within this walk or adventure we call life, we all want to succeed at something. We all have dreams, goals and desires that we carry. But consider this within your adventure,
"Each failure is a strength or step to success. It all depends on you and the greater One who lives within you."
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