“I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times I’ve been [bad word] 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 was one of the greatest athletes of all time, but like all great people, he also failed regularly. Watching Michael Jordan play basketball was like watching a man fly. His grace and talent were unmatched. Clearly he had a lifetime of training and incredible natural talent, but these weren’t the only things that made him great. He also had a healthy relationship with failure. Like many greats in sports and business, he wasn’t discouraged by failure. The shots he missed and the games that he lost didn’t make him give up. He knew that failure was just another chance for him to improve. 

Many highly successful people in the world of sports and business have this healthy relationship with failure. One of the world’s most famous inventors, Thomas Edison made thousands of attempts at creating a light bulb. He tried hundreds of materials for the light bulb filament, but there was always a problem. Some would burn out. Others would explode. Some would melt the glass. There were always problems, but he never gave up and he never saw his failure as a failure. He just saw it as a step towards success. Edison once said, “I have not failed. I have merely found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” This attitude of seeing failure as a learning experience helped him persevere. This way of thinking eventually led him to Japan, where he found a kind of bamboo, which was the perfect material for his light bulb invention.