By Stephen Smoot
George Washington failed in his first military expedition and, inadvertently, helped to launch the first global war. After that war, Washington again failed, this time in raising the aristocratically favored crop of tobacco.
John Adams, one of the most distinguished jurists in any country’s history, lost his first case because he forgot to fill in the name of the county on the writ – as was required by law. Rutherford B. Hayes also struggled early in his legal career.
Thomas Jefferson did write up the Declaration of Independence, but was so disturbed by the extensive edits made by John Adams and Benjamin Franklin, he left the Continental Congress in despair for opportunities to serve in Virginia.
James Madison’s arguments in the Continental Congress for tariffs in 1781 and 1783 to fund the War of Independence were both defeated.
Andrew Jackson, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, and Joe Biden all led failed presidential campaigns at least once prior to winning the office.
Abraham Lincoln lost to Stephen Douglas in his 1858 campaign for United States Senate, but did somewhat better in a different race two years later.
Ulysses S. Grant nearly failed out of West Point, his graduation hinging on his grades in horsemanship because he showed competency in almost no other subject. Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson also performed poorly at the United States Military Academy.
Theodore Roosevelt, later seen as the acme of masculine fitness and activity, grew up as a pale, thin, and often sick young man until he chose to build his physical strength and personal resilience.
Calvin Coolidge, though fairly financially fastidious, always struggled with money. His father occasionally sent him help to pay his bills even while Governor of Massachusetts and Vice President.
Franklin D. Roosevelt almost failed out of law school.
Harry Truman and George W. Bush both failed as businessmen. Truman could not make profit off of selling clothes during an economic boom.
Dwight D. Eisenhower, as a young officer in 1920, published articles about the theory of tank warfare. His superiors threatened to court-martial him out of the Army for publishing views in opposition to accepted doctrine
Jimmy Carter finished third in his first race for Governor of Georgia.
In 1988, Bill Clinton delivered an agonizingly, overly long speech at the Democratic National Convention. This led to persistent national ridicule from entertainers such as Johnny Carson who made him the butt of jokes for years.
Donald Trump endured a number of setbacks in his business career, including real estate projects and the folding of his short-lived professional football team the New Jersey Generals in the short-lived United States Football League.
Nothing teaches like failure. Success can come from systematically doing everything, or almost everything, right to gain the desired result. Success may also arise from blundering through, combined with sheer dumb luck. Few analyze success in the same way as failure to learn lessons needed to grow and perform better next time.
The fear of failure paralyzes. Those who live in fear of failing take fewer risks, and in doing so, miss opportunities. Inaction caused by fear of failure will, at times, lead to worse results than trying and failing.
Failure, on the other hand, provides the gift of experience and sometimes even wisdom.
Above all, failure is part of life – and a necessary one at that. Failure provides perspective that helps a person to better judge an issue or a problem’s significance. Experiencing failure makes a person more resilient, if in no other way than in diminishing the fear that future potential failure can inspire.
Failure is part of adversity. Some on the list did not fail so much as they encountered significant adversity and overcame it, sometimes by the skin of their teeth. Adversity strengthens the spirit just as reading a printed book strengthens the mind or lifting weights and running strengthens the body. Lessons learned from both adversity and failure can do wonders.
In 1989, Charlie Hayes was acquired by the Philadelphia Phillies from the San Francisco Giants. My father, who led the Kanawha Valley Conference with a batting average of .400 and was a star at Morris Harvey College, took my brother and I to a Phillies game at Veterans Stadium that year.
That game was one of the first times Hayes took the field for that club. The third baseman made error after error, intolerable for some of the most aggressive fans in any sport. They booed him robustly any time the ball came near him.
My brother and I started making uncomplimentary comments about poor Hayes as well.
Dad, who seemed to always be at his wisest when making a point against what everyone else seemed to think, softly said something like “keep an eye on him. He’s going to be really special.”
And indeed he was. The third baseman that Phillies fans wanted gone the next day became one of the better defensive third basemen of his era, boasting a wide range and dependable fielding. He also hit for a solid average and even a little power.
Hayes was a rock for the 1991 National League champion Phillies squad, playing on the opposite side of the diamond from the Pride of Burlington, John Kruk. He then contributed mightily to a New York Yankees World Series winning team.
Failure did not stop Charlie Hayes so much as it launched his career.
Don’t fear failure. Don’t judge a person simply on a failure if their competency, effort, and intellect are sound.
And definitely do not regard failure as an evil or a black mark, but rather as an opportunity to learn, grow, and even lead.
