The Line Between Failure and Success-Daily Meditation 2.29.24

Today’s Quotation:

The line between failure and success is so fine that we . . . are often on the line and do not know it.  How many people have thrown up his or her hands at a time when a little more effort and a little more patience would have achieved success?  A little more persistence, a little more effort, and what seemed hopeless failure may turn into glorious success. -Elbert Hubbard

Today’s Meditation on Line Between Failure and Success:

Napoleon Hill tells a fascinating story about a man who bought a gold mine out west.  He sank a lot of money into mining equipment and everything else he would need, only to have the mine run dry quickly.  Despondent and disappointed, he sold the mine and all of his equipment to another man, who hired a mining engineer to examine the mine.  The engineer found that a shift in the earth had caused the mountain to shift, effectively breaking the vein of ore in two–all the man had to do was dig three feet deeper, and there he found the rest of the ore–and millions of dollars from one of the wealthiest mines around.

That story illustrates very well what Elbert’s talking about here–we all have gold mines that can bring us incredible wealth in the form of friendships, job satisfaction, creative expression, or many other areas of our lives if only we persevere when it seems like there’s no hope if we keep on keeping on when it seems like there may be little reason for us to do so.

Of course, there’s much to be said for dropping something when it’s apparent that it won’t happen or that the cost will exceed the value of the finished product or project by far.  If I start to run a marathon and sprain my ankle in the first mile, it wouldn’t be too bright of me to run the remaining 25 miles on a sprained ankle.  Even if I’ve practiced the guitar for years and I’m about to give my first performance, it would be awful to go on and perform if I developed pneumonia the day of the performance.

But usually, things aren’t that drastic, and they don’t always affect our health.  If ten publishers have turned down your manuscript, try five more–Jonathan Livingston Seagull and the first Chicken Soup for the Soul book were turned down by over fifty publishers before they were put into print, and look at the results!  If the authors/editors had given up when most people would have, those books would never have been published, and they never would have had such a positive effect on many people.  A little more effort and a little more patience.  It’s always worth trying to give both because we’re worth it.

Questions to ponder Line Between Failure and Success:

1.  Can you think of an instance when you’ve wanted to give up but kept trying, and the results were worth it?  Is there anything in your life like that now?

2.  How do you distinguish between “not worth further effort” and “still worth a shot”?

3.  How often is “failure” indeed a failure?

For further thought, Line Between Failure and Success:

When nothing seems to help, I look at a stonecutter hammering away at a rock perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it.  Yet at the hundred and first blow, it will split in two, and I know it was not that blow that did it–but all that had gone before. -Jacob Riis

If you missed our last Daily Meditation, it is here.