“Opportunity often comes disguised in the form of misfortune or temporary defeat.” — Napoleon Hill
“Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor.” — Truman Capote
“Make mistakes, just don’t make them permanent.” — James Clear
“Take chances, make mistakes, get messy!” — Ms. Frizzle
“I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. Twenty-six times I’ve been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.” — Michael Jordan
“Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.” — Samuel Beckett
“Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.” — Henry Ford
“Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes.” — Oscar Wilde
Your goal is not to avoid making mistakes, but to avoid making the same mistake and keep making new mistakes.
- Once is a mistake. Twice is a choice. Three times is a decision.
- 「知錯」是一種智慧，「糾錯」是一種勇氣，「除錯」則是一連串假設及驗證的過程。
A failure is not always a mistake, it may simply be the best one can do under the circumstances. The real mistake is to stop trying. Every single failure is a lesson. It only becomes real failure if you learn nothing from it.
- It doesn’t matter if I don’t succeed in something. What matters is if I learn from my failures & mistakes.
Failing Forward: If you want to win, you have to lose first.
- “One fails forward toward success.” — Charles Kettering
- “Failure is the highway to success.” — Og Mandino
- “Legends aren’t defined by their success, they’re defined by how they bounce back from their failures.” — Chris Bosh
- Failure is not the opposite of success, it’s part of success.
- Success comes from turning setbacks into comebacks.
- 失敗為成功之母 → (微) 小成功為成功之母。
- Success is about stacking tiny/small wins.
- 失敗，是未來的墊腳石，但成功，也可能是未來的絆腳石。
The Donkey Mindset
One day, an old donkey falls into a deep well. The farmer tries to figure out what to do, but decides, given the age of the animal and the danger of the deep open well, that the best course of action is to fill the well and close it off. He begins to shovel dirt into the well. After several hours of work, the farmer is nearly done filling the well, when suddenly, to his amazement, the old donkey leaps out from the dirt-filled well and trots off into the pasture. The farmer realizes: Rather than resigning itself to its fate with each shovel of dirt that hit its back, the donkey had shaken the dirt off and stepped up on top of it. As the farmer had continued to shovel dirt into the well, the clever donkey used the dirt to get closer to its escape.
Life will inevitably throw dirt your way—challenges, setbacks, and all kinds of troubles and struggles. The key to rising above it is to shake off that dirt and use it as a stepping stone. Every obstacle we face can be transformed into an opportunity to climb higher. Even when you find yourself in the deepest well, remember this: Shake it off, and take a step up. Never give up. With determination and resilience, you can turn every challenge into a path forward.
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