134 Marbles
Many of life's failures are men who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.
Many of life's failures are men who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.
Thomas A. Edison
Everyone needs stories in their kitbags - stories that hold gravity when you hear them - the ones you tuck away for a later date when you need a little inspiration. For me, a few of these stories remind me about how much tenacity is required to follow your dreams.
The first story is about John Kennedy Toole, a New Orleanian who wrote the brilliant novel, Confederacy of Dunces. I read the book several years ago and was captivated by the quirkiness of the French Quarter and the comical characters who lived there. Toole’s personal story, however, is not so comical. After devoting much energy to his novel and having it rejected by several publishers, Toole took his own life in 1969. Several years later, his mother brought the manuscript to an editor who relates the story in the book’s foreword, claiming it was the worst set of conditions to be given a manuscript - by a mother whose son had committed suicide as the result of numerous rejections. Despite his reticence, the editor started reading it and was hooked from page one. Confederacy of Dunces was published and Toole was posthumously awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.
Another story in my kitbag is one told in Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich about a prospector who did all his geological research and determined that a certain area would have a rich deposit of gold. He bought the land and all the equipment and started excavating. The excavation turned up nothing and the more they dug, the more he became in a financial hole until he finally gave up and sold everything. The person who bought the land set to work and within a few days, struck gold - lots of it. Yet the fellow who sold the land didn’t become discouraged - he went on to build a successful insurance business because he had learned the valuable lesson - never give up.
The third story is about my favorite Canadian author, Ann-Marie MacDonald. Early in her career while she was working on her brilliant tome, Fall On Your Knees, she was offered a good job that would have given her a great deal of financial security but no time to work on her novel. When she turned the job down based on nothing other than a gut instinct to keep writing, she said it was the hardest decision she ever had to make, “It was like watching a moving money train pass me by.” Luckily, her own money train would stop for her after her book was published and Oprah choose it for her book club. Ching, ching.
So when I begin to feel like success will never come, I take these stories out of my kitbag and remind myself to keep excavating, working, while never giving up.
Napolean Hill noted, “Most great people have attained their greatest success just one step beyond their greatest failure.” With this in mind, how can you label a failure when it may just be the doorway to success? Most people judge a breakup as a failure but could it be a step closer to more happiness? A better relationship with yourself? A better relationship with another?
Everyone needs stories in their kitbags - stories that hold gravity when you hear them - the ones you tuck away for a later date when you need a little inspiration. For me, a few of these stories remind me about how much tenacity is required to follow your dreams.
The first story is about John Kennedy Toole, a New Orleanian who wrote the brilliant novel, Confederacy of Dunces. I read the book several years ago and was captivated by the quirkiness of the French Quarter and the comical characters who lived there. Toole’s personal story, however, is not so comical. After devoting much energy to his novel and having it rejected by several publishers, Toole took his own life in 1969. Several years later, his mother brought the manuscript to an editor who relates the story in the book’s foreword, claiming it was the worst set of conditions to be given a manuscript - by a mother whose son had committed suicide as the result of numerous rejections. Despite his reticence, the editor started reading it and was hooked from page one. Confederacy of Dunces was published and Toole was posthumously awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.
Another story in my kitbag is one told in Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich about a prospector who did all his geological research and determined that a certain area would have a rich deposit of gold. He bought the land and all the equipment and started excavating. The excavation turned up nothing and the more they dug, the more he became in a financial hole until he finally gave up and sold everything. The person who bought the land set to work and within a few days, struck gold - lots of it. Yet the fellow who sold the land didn’t become discouraged - he went on to build a successful insurance business because he had learned the valuable lesson - never give up.
The third story is about my favorite Canadian author, Ann-Marie MacDonald. Early in her career while she was working on her brilliant tome, Fall On Your Knees, she was offered a good job that would have given her a great deal of financial security but no time to work on her novel. When she turned the job down based on nothing other than a gut instinct to keep writing, she said it was the hardest decision she ever had to make, “It was like watching a moving money train pass me by.” Luckily, her own money train would stop for her after her book was published and Oprah choose it for her book club. Ching, ching.
So when I begin to feel like success will never come, I take these stories out of my kitbag and remind myself to keep excavating, working, while never giving up.
Napolean Hill noted, “Most great people have attained their greatest success just one step beyond their greatest failure.” With this in mind, how can you label a failure when it may just be the doorway to success? Most people judge a breakup as a failure but could it be a step closer to more happiness? A better relationship with yourself? A better relationship with another?
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