You may guess I’ve been reading succes books lately and you would be right.  Starting at an early age, I read many biographies of successful people in history.  And one thing really struck me, and that was that almost all of these historical figures of success failed earlier in their lives, oftem spectacularly and repeatedly.

George Washington is a clear case of this, losing an imrtant battlle, that he should not have lost, early in his military career.  And of course, he got off to a bad start before that chopping down a cherry tree.  And Abraham Lincoln had a nervous breakdown as a lawyer in Illinois – although I suppose that’s understandable.

But what these and other great people did was just pull themselves up and try again.  So there is some merit to the try, try again slogan.

On the other hand, no amount of research I did came up with a famous person who failed at skydiving, tried again, and went on to smashing great success.  So the try, try again thing just must not work with jumping out of a perfectly good airplane for no reason at all.  Go figure.

Anyhow, you may be interested in the current success book I’m reading by Scott Adams, the creator / cartoonist of Dilbert.  It’s entitled How To Fail At Almost Everything and Still Win Big – Kind of the Story of My Life.  I recomend it highly.  You can order it at this link on Amazon – Scott’s Book on How To Fail At Almost Everything…

He didn’t come up with any successful failed skydivers either, but it’s still a great read full of practical and humorous advice .

Have a nice day – J. Daniel

Cartoon Dialog: Setting: Many skydivers floating down from the sky from their parachutes at the Free Fall Skydiving School.  In the foregrond is a deep hole in the ground in the shape of a WoodChip whose parachute must not have opened.
Caption: If at first you don’t succeed… skydiving is not for you.