The Cost of Failure

Failure bothers us, and we focus on the feeling of failure, not the cost. - Seth Godin

..... The cost of failure may be so small that it may be worth the chance.

Sounds Good

Much of the social history of the Western world over the past three decades has involved replacing what worked with what sounded good. In area after area - crime, education, housing, race relations - the situation has gotten worse after the bright new theories were put into operation. The amazing thing is that this history of failure and disaster has neither discouraged the social engineers nor discredited them. - Thomas Sowell

..... Only education can make what used to sound good, sound bad.

Do Not Try

Do or do not. There is no try. - Yoda


"Try" leaves open an excuse for failure. There is no excuse.

Great Attempts

In great attempts it is glorious even to fail. - Vince Lombardi


Give it your all and be proud of it.

Walking Blind

He should not vow to walk in the dark, who has not seen the nightfall. - J. R. R. Tolkien


Making assumptions about an unknown subject can lead to disaster.

Your Help

God help those who do not help themselves. - Wilson Mizner

Don't ever count on divine intervention.

Certain Failure

A person who doubts himself is like a man who would enlist in the ranks of his enemies and bear arms against himself. He makes his failure certain by himself being the first person to be convinced of it. - Alexandre Dumas


If you have doubts about what you are capable of, don't do it.

Compromise

Compromise used to mean that a half a loaf was better than no bread. Among modern statesmen it really seems to mean that half a loaf is better than a whole loaf. - G. K. Chesterton


If you have no choice but to compromise, be honest with yourself about what you are giving up.

Great Poetry

The greatest poem is not that which is most skillfully constructed, but that in which there is the most poetry. - L. Schefer

I doesn't matter how you build it, if it doesn't do the job it's a failure.

Hope

Hope is like a piece of string when you're drowning; it just isn't enough to get you out by itself. - Robert Jordan

"Hoping for the best" does not insure it will come to pass - it's what action you take which determines the end.

Contentment With Mediocrity

Show me someone content with mediocrity and I'll show you someone destined for failure. - Johnetta Cole


Contentment means you have given up improving.

Internal Struggle

There is no failure except in no longer trying. There is no defeat except from within, no really insurmountable barrier save our own inherent weakness of purpose. - Kin Hubbard 


Note all are forces from within.

Bouncing

I don't measure a man's success by how high he climbs but how high he bounces when he hits bottom. - George S. Patton


Success takes risk; Risk means possible failure; Failure means you must learn to bounce.

But, But .........

Invoking the limits of the possible may be a sympathetic excuse for failure -- but it does not transform failure into success. - David Frum


I did everything possible to make this post interesting, but.......

Destiny's Choice

Destiny is not a matter of chance, it is a matter of choice; it is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved. - William Jennings Bryan


If you want your destiny to be abysmal go back and sit on the couch.

Ownership

When a man blames others for his failures, it's a good idea to credit others with his sucesses. - Howard W. Newton


Success and failure are like any other possession.

Experimental Actions

A thinker sees his own actions as experiments and questions--as attempts to find out something. Success and failure are for him answers above all. - Friedrich Nietzsche 


Better than acting randomly.


(Other posts on Thinking) 

A fly's Sting

A fly may sting a stately horse and make him wince; but one is but an insect, and the other is a horse still.  -  Samuel Johnson 


Don't let the rebuke of a fly cause you to doubt your stateliness.


(Other posts 0n Negativity) 

Education vs Intelligence - Guest Blog

You're not dumb, just under-educated - Lyle Wilson

When the old man tutors kids he always believes that the road to success can only be cleared by eliminating reasons (prejudice, intelligence) why you can't succeed. You or the people around you can always give you a perfect reason to fail.

Failure's Path

Failure is the path of least persistence. - George M. Van Valkenburg, Jr

I like this much better than the old "try, try again" cliche.

(Other posts on Failure)