On Failure...

Tom Edgerton · 04-19-2007, 01:54 PM

Sir James Dyson, designer of the best-selling bagless vacuum cleaner in the world:

"I made 5,127 prototypes of my vacuum before I got it right. There were 5,126 failures. But I learned from each one. So I don't mind failure. I've always thought schoolchildren should be marked by the number of failures they've had. The child who tries strange things and experiences lots of failure to get there is probably more creative...We're taught to do things the right way. But if you want to discover something that other people haven't, you need to do things the wrong way. Initiate a failure by doing something that's very silly, unthinkable, naughty, dangerous. Watching why that fails can take you on a completely different path. It's exciting, actually. To me solving problems is a bit like a drug. You're on it, and you can't get off. I spent seven years on our washing machine."

Michele Rushworth · 04-19-2007, 02:55 PM

Thanks for posting that, Tom. Here's another one I've always liked:

Quote:

Michael Jordan:
I have missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I have lost almost 300 games. On 26 occasions I have been entrusted to take the game winning shot... and missed. And I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.

Michele Rushworth · 04-19-2007, 02:56 PM

And one from very successful portrait artist Bart Lindstrom: "Just assume that every tenth portrait you do will be a total failure."

SB Wang · 04-19-2007, 07:58 PM

"Where do correct ideas come from? Do they drop from the skies? No. Are they innate in the mind? No. They come from social practice, and from it alone; they come from three kinds of social practice, the struggle for production, the class struggle and scientific experiment. It is man

Mischa Milosevic · 04-20-2007, 04:34 AM

Thank you Tom. I think you've raised a good point as usual.

To finish the race and get the prise one must train and at times go without sleep. Still, each strives but what does one strive for. Do we know? Do you know? 9000 x 9000 times will I try but when let go and go to the one that holds wisdom in the palm of his hand and accept that I am to learn as a little child then and only then the true understanding will come. Then again, what does one strive for. Does one know? That too is important to come to grips with.

Many bombard us with much learning and what. Is this where success awaits? I do not think so and don't be fooled. Then where, one may ask. Strive we must and at times we feel that the road leads no where but does it. We must pick our battles and feed and get drink at the right restaurant. If we don't the road will truly end at no where. He that has ears let him hear.

Chris Saper · 05-01-2007, 10:51 PM

I LOVE failures. Good thing, because I have had so many.

Michele, thanks for the Jordan quote! I recall a Nike ad that addressed his diligence and tried to submit it as a sidebar for my book. But because the book, in order to support international sales, needed to be "non-American-identified" it got cut in committee. But ctually so did a painting of a boy in a Phoenix Suns t-shirt.

Tom Edgerton · 05-12-2007, 11:49 AM

Robert Heindel died in 2005 at age 67. He was a famous illustrator during the mid- to late-20th century, and was noted for his many paintings of dancers.

In an interview at the end of his life, when he knew he was dying, he said:

"When you do really terrific work, you know that you