I remember when I was the first person in my circle of friends and family to have saved Princess Peach in Super Mario Bros. My dad took a picture of me posing in front of the TV screen; Mario and Peach in the background, it was a few short seconds of feeling like the champion of the world—of Super Mario’s world.
But reaching the end of Super Mario Bros. was not done overnight. It was full of “lost lives” and hours of button mashing— it was full of failures.
Failure and Success
The act of failure is often referred to as the perfect teacher for success; and that’s true. I am reminded of this quote from Michael Jordan:
However, I think there’s a meta lesson in Jordan’s quote that lays just beyond the surface. He talks about failing being the key to his success, and while that’s true, failing alone is not enough. What strikes me about this quote, is that he knows how many shots he’s missed, the number of games lost, and how many times he’s failed to make the game winning shot.
Failure alone is not the key to success, it is remembering and learning from these failures that ultimately leads to it.
Michael Beil says
great reminder.
Eric Dye says
😉