EVERY SUCCESS STORY IS ALSO A STORY OF GREAT FAILURE

In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful

He it is Who hath placed you as viceroys of the earth and hath exalted some of you in rank above others, that He may try you by (the test of) that which He hath given you. Lo! Thy Lord is swift in prosecution, and Lo! He verily is Forgiving, Merciful.-Surah Al-Anaam ayat 165

Allah SWT berfirman di dalam al-quran Surah Al-Anaam ayat 165 yang bermaksud:

Dia yang melantik kamu khalifah-khalifah (pengganti-pengganti) di bumi, dan menaikkan sebahagian kamu dalam darjat di atas sebahagian yang lain, supaya Dia menguji kamu pada apa yang Dia memberikan kamu. Sesungguhnya, Pemelihara kamu cepat dalam pembalasan sewajarnya; dan sesungguhnya Dia Pengampun, Pengasih.- Surah Al-Anaam ayat 165




A model of an 1879 street light burns in the Edison Museum in Edison, N.J., in front of a portrait of inventor Thomas A. Edison.





EVERY SUCCESS STORY IS ALSO A STORY OF GREAT FAILURE

Failure is the highway to success. Tom Watson Sr. said, , "If you want to succeed double your failure rate."

If you study history, you will find that all stories of success are also stories of great failures. But people don't see the failures. They only see one side of the picture and they say that person got lucky: "He must have been at the right place at the right time."

Let me share someone's life history with you.

Abraham Lincoln
This was a man who failed in business at the age of 21 ; was defeated in a legislative race at age 22; failed again in business at age 24; overcame the death of his sweetheart at age 26; had a nervous breakdown at age 27; lost a congressional race at age 34; lost a senatorial race at age 45; failed in an effort to become vice-president at age 47; lost a senatorial race at age 49; and was elected president of the United States at age 52. This man was Abraham Lincoln.

Would you call him a failure? He could have quit. But to Lincoln, defeat was a detour and not a dead end.

Lee De Forest
In 1913, Lee De Forest, inventor of the triodes tube, was charged by the district attorney for using fraudulent means to mislead the public into buying stocks of his company by claiming that he could transmit the human voice across the Atlantic. He was publicly humiliated. Can you imagine where we would be without his invention?

Wright Brothers
A New York Times editorial on December 10, 1903, questioned the wisdom of the Wright Brothers who were trying to invent a machine, heavier than air, that would fly. One week later, at Kitty Hawk, the Wright Brothers took their famous flight.

Colonel Sanders
Colonel Sanders, at age 65, with a beat-up car and a $100 check from Social Security, realized he had to do something. He remembered his mother's recipe and went out selling. How many doors did he have to knock on before he got his first order? It is estimated that he had knocked on more than a thousand doors before he got his first order. How many of us quit after three tries, ten tries, a hundred tries, and then we say we tried as hard as we could?

Walt Disney
As a young cartoonist, Walt Disney faced many rejections from newspaper editors, who said he had no talent. One day a minister at a church hired him to draw some cartoons. Disney was working out of a small mouse¬ infested shed near the church. After seeing a small mouse, he was inspired. That was the start of Mickey Mouse.

Successful people don't do great things, they only do small things in a great way.

Thomas Edison
One day a partially deaf four year old kid came home with a note in his pocket from his teacher, "Your Tommy is too stupid to learn, get him out of the school." His mother read the note and answered, "My Tommy is not stupid to learn, I will teach him myself." And that Tommy grew up to be the great Thomas Edison. Thomas Edison had only three months of formal schooling and he was partially deaf.

In 1914, Thomas Edison, at age 67, lost his factory, which was worth a few million dollars, to fire. It had very little insurance. No longer a young man, Edison watched his lifetime effort go up in smoke and said, "There is great value in disaster. All our mistakes are burnt up. Thank God we can start anew." In spite of disaster, three weeks later, he invented the phonograph. What an attitude!

Henry Ford
Henry Ford forgot to put the reverse gear in the first car he made.

Do you consider these people failures? They succeeded in spite of problems, not in the absence of them. But to the outside world, it appears as though they just got lucky.

All success stories are stories of great failures. The only difference is that every time they failed, they bounced back. This is called failing forward, rather than backward. You learn and move forward. Learn from your failure and keep moving.

Below are more examples of the failures of successful people:

1. Thomas Edison failed approximately 10,000 times while he was working on the light bulb.
2. Henry Ford was broke at the age of 40.
3. Lee Iacocca was fired by Henry Ford II at the age of 54.
4. Young Beethoven was told that he had no talent for music, but he gave some of the best music to the world.

Setbacks are inevitable in life. A setback can act as a driving force and also teach us humility. In grief you will find courage and faith to overcome the setback. We need to learn to become victors, not victims. Fear and doubt short-circuit the mind.

Ask yourself after every setback: What did I learn from this experience? Only then will you be able to turn a stumbling block into a stepping stone.

WINNERS vs LOSERS

In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful
Firman Allah SWT di dalam al-quran Surah al-Ra‘d, ayat 11 yang bermaksud: Sesungguhnya Allah tidak mengubah nasib sesuatu kaum sebelum kaum itu mengubah apa yang ada pada dirinya sendiri.

Table 1 - Winners vs Losers (Click to enlarge)

William James of Harvard University said, "If you are going to change your life, you need to start immediately and do it flamboyantly."

THE DEFINITION OF SUCCESS

Earl Nightingale


HOW DO WE DEFINE SUCCESS?

What makes a person successful? How do we recognize success?
To some people, success might mean wealth. To others, it is recognition, good health, good family, happiness, satisfaction, and peace of mind. What this really tells us is that success is subjective. It can mean different things to different people. The definition that I feel summarizes "success" well is:

Success is the progressive realization of a worthy goal.- Earl Nightingale

Let's look at these definitions carefully.

"Progressive" means that success is a journey, not a destination. We never arrive. After we reach one goal, we go on to the next and the next and the next.

"Realization" means it is an experience. Outside forces cannot make me feel successful. I have to feel it within myself. It is internal not external.

"Worthy" refers to our value system. Which way are we heading? Positive or negative? Worthiness determines the quality of the journey. That is what gives meaning and fulfillment. Success without fulfillment is empty.

Why "Goals" are important? Because they give us a sense of direction.
Success does not mean being accepted by everyone. There are some groups I would not want to be accepted by, out of choice. I would rather be criticized by fools than appreciated by unsavory characters.

I define success as a manifestation of good luck that results from inspiration, aspiration, desperation and perspiration; generally in that sequence.

Success and happiness go hand in hand. Success is getting what you want and happiness is wanting what you get!

Existence alone is not success! It is a lot more!
Do more than exist -- live
Do more than touch -- feel
Do more than look -- observe
Do more than read -- absorb
Do more than hear -- listen
Do more than listen -- understand
- John H. Rhodes
















Success by Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)

To laugh often and much;
to win the respect of intelligent people
and the affection of children;
to earn the appreciation of honest critics
and endure the betrayal of false friends;
to appreciate beauty; to find the best in others;
to leave the world a bit better,
whether by a healthy child,
a garden patch
or a redeemed social condition;
to know even one life has breathed easier
because you have lived.
This is to have succeeded

Interesting comments from the blog reader

Depicted below are the comments I received over my e-mail and I would like to share the comments with other readers. It is a very informative, interesting and highly intellectual comments and I leave it to the readers to read and evaluate the comments. For the sender, I thank you for the comment.

QUOTE - "The story at http://darahkedayan.blogspot.com/ has little to do with
intelligence or even knowledge. It has to do with the failure to
recognise that his own land is full of diamonds. This is a failure of
knowledge, not of intelligence because he was successful before he
started becoming greedy.

If you want to discuss what intelligence is you may start with my blogspot at
http://scientificintelligence.blogspot.com

Actually it is not easy to define success scientifically.
Do you consider Hitler or Bill Gates as a success?

How about those in between? Are they a success or a failure?

Those walking encyclopaedias such as Einstein and Newton, why do you
consider them as failures because they are only in between? Or because
they are not well off financially.

Actually, in order to understand how to evaluate success is to
understand Shannon's Information Theory which is the basis of my
intelligence theory. You don't need to define how useful any
information is. You just measure how much information content there
is.

Is monetary wealth the only criteria for success?

Walking encyclopedias may not be respected by many people because they
are poor, but I certainly welcome them because they contribute to more
knowledge. Just look at the wealth of knowledge that our ancestors had
accumulated, such as the food that had been invented by our ancestors.
In order to preserve their knowledge for eternity, we should document
them as quickly and as permanently as possible. Blogspots are
certainly the best way of doing it at the moment. That is why
http://sabahexoticfood.blogspot.com was setup.- UNQUOTE

EDUCATION DOES NOT MEAN GOOD JUDGEMENT

Harvard University





There is a story about a man who sold hot dogs by the roadside. He was illiterate, so he never read newspapers. He was hard of hearing, so he never listened to the radio. His eyes were weak, so he never watched television. But enthusiastically, he sold lots of hot dogs. His sales and profit went up. He ordered more meat and got himself a bigger and a better stove. As his business was growing, the son, who had recently graduated from college, joined his father.

Then something strange happened. The son asked, "Dad, aren't you aware of the great recession that is coming our way?" The father replied, "No, but tell me about it." The son said, "The international situation is terrible. The domestic is even worse. We should be prepared for the coming bad time." The man thought that since his son had been to college, read the papers, and listened to the radio, he ought to know and his advice should not be taken lightly. So the next day, the father cut down his order for the meat and buns, took down the sign and was no longer enthusiastic. Very soon, fewer and fewer people bothered to stop at his hot dog stand. And his sales started coming down rapidly. The father said to his son, "Son, you were right. We are in the middle of a recession. I am glad you warned me ahead of time."

What is the moral of the story?

1. Many times we confuse intelligence with good judgment.
2. A person may have high intelligence but poor judgment.
3. Choose your advisers carefully and use your judgment.
4. A person can and will be successful with or without formal education if they have the 5 Cs:
• character
• commitment
• conviction
• courtesy
• courage
5. The tragedy is that there are many walking encyclopaedias who are living failures.

Look at this: -

A study attributed to Harvard University found that when a person gets a job, 85% of the time it is because of their attitude, and only 15% of the time because of how smart they are and how many facts and figures they know. Surprisingly, almost 100% of education dollars go to teach facts and figures which account for only 15% of success in work!

acres of diamonds

ACRES OF DIAMONDS

There was a farmer in Africa who was happy and content. He was happy because he was content. He was content because he was happy. One day a wise man came to him and told him about the glory of diamonds and the power that goes along with them. The wise man said, "If you had a diamond the size of your thumb, you could have your own city. If you had a diamond the size of your fist, you could probably own your own country." And then he went away. That night the farmer couldn't sleep. He was unhappy and he was discontent. He was unhappy because he was discontent and discontent because he was unhappy.
The next morning he made arrangements to sell off his farm, took care of his family and went in search of diamonds. He looked all over Africa and couldn't find any. He looked all through Europe and couldn't find any. When he got to Spain, he was emotionally, physically and financially broke. He got so disheartened that he threw himself into the Barcelona River and committed suicide.
Back home, the person who had bought his farm was watering the camels at a stream that ran through the farm. Across the stream, the rays of the morning sun hit a stone and made it sparkle like a rainbow. He thought it would look good on the mantle piece. He picked up the stone and put it in the living room. That afternoon the wise man came and saw the stone sparkling. He asked, "Is Hafiz back?" The new owner said, "No, why do you ask?" The wise man said, "Because that is a diamond. I recognize one when I see one." The man said, no, that's just a stone I picked up from the stream. Come, I'll show you. There are many more." They went and picked some samples and sent them for analysis. Sure enough, the stones were diamonds. They found that the farm was indeed covered with acres and acres of diamonds.*

What is the moral of this story?
There are five morals:
1. When our attitude is right, we realize that we are all walking on acres and acres of diamonds.

• Attributed to Dr Russel Conwell .
• Opportunity is always under our feet. We don't have to go anywhere. All we need to do is recognize it.

2. The grass on the other side always looks greener.
3. While we are dyeing the grass on the other side, there are others who are dyeing the grass on our side. They would be happy to trade places with us.
4. When people don't know how to recognize oppor¬tunity, they complain of noise when it knocks.
5. The same opportunity never knocks twice. The next one may be better or worse, but it is never the same one.

do it right the first time, every time

Michelangelo was working on a statue for several days and he was taking a long time to retouch every small detail which seemed rather insignificant to a bystander. When asked why he did it, Michelangelo replied, "Trifles make perfection and perfection is no trifle."
Most people forget how fast you did a job, but they remember how well it was done.

If a man is called to be street sweeper, he should sweep streets
even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music,
or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well
that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, here
lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.

--Martin Luger King, Jr.

managing problems

People who have overcome obstacles are more secure than those who have never faced them . We all have problems and we feel discouraged some time. Most people get disappointed; but winners don't get disheartened. The answer is perseverance.
An English proverb says, "A smooth sea never made a skillful mariner." Everything is difficult before it becomes easy. We cannot run away from our problems. Only losers quit and give up.

Suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem.

--Abigail Van Buren