The Princes of Fame and Failure
I noticed that people are quick to point out how “ahead of their time” so many visionaries were. They cite Edison, and Einstein, and Churchill and we all fall all over ourselves wondering where they found their insights. Yet, from time to time someone will come along and point out that even the greats and leaders in their field thought their ideas wouldn’t fly. Those foolish enough to remark on failure publicly are doomed to hear their words haunt them for eternity when the “foolishness” or “fad” becomes a social or business icon and indispensable part of our lives.
When you think you’ve been wearing blinders, or have failed, or done something short-sighted and stupid, remember these giants of vision and their *pearls* of wisdom. None of us, even the great minds, can be right all the time - or even see the potential in even the most fabulous discoveries before the fact:
“Radio is just a fashion contrivance that will soon die out. It is obvious that there never will be invented a proper receiver!”
- Thomas Edison
“No flying machine will ever fly from New York to Paris.”
- Orville Wright.
“The atom bomb will never go off, and I speak as an expert in explosives.”
- Admiral William Leahy to President Truman before the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima.
More recently, Kim Komando, a talk-show host who talks about computers remembers when the national networks thought her concept of talk radio about computers was a joke. In an “About Kim article on her site her site she recounts: “In order to take a radio show national, you start with the big networks like ABC and CBS to see if it is what they want. It was 1994 and the guy at ABC told me a syndicated show with people talking about computers would never work. This was in 1994!”
Programmers at CBS Radio were even less enthusiastic. She laughs: “They told me computers and the Internet were a fad; it would never go. They said computers are like the pet rock.”
The point of this post is, Keep plugging. Don’t dismiss any idea as a total failure. Only TIME (not the magazine) will tell if you were wise or foolish. Don’t waste your time wondering or second-guessing yourself. And don’t let others sway your decisions either.
Chris Gardner (see his photo above) was once homeless. He lived in bus station bathrooms, hotel rooms and on the streets with his young son while he was taking classes to become a stock broker.
According to Wikipedia, “None of Gardner’s coworkers knew that he and his son were homeless in the Tenderloin District of San Francisco for nearly a year. Gardner often scrambled to place his child in daycare, stood in soup lines and slept wherever he and his son could find safety—in his office after hours, at flophouses, at parks, and even in a locked bathroom at the Bay Area Rapid Transit station.”
Gardner is now a multi-millionaire. If he had listened to people (and I’m sure there were many) who told him he was crazy, or dreaming, or foolish, or irresponsible or worse for living and doing what he felt compelled to do…then he wouldn’t be where he is today.
Wherever you are, whoever is telling you you’re wrong, foolish, irresponsible, stupid, a dreamer or anything else - ignore them. Only YOU know in your heart, in your gut if what you’re doing is right. If YOU believe in your dream, that’s all that matters. Follow it.
