Ideas for success

Failure can bring success

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by

Brad Stanton
in

I can
It is amazing to me how many times I see failure bring about success. Mark, a student at Harvard University was very disappointed because his girlfriend broke up with him. He was so sad that he went to his dorm room and began hacking into other dormitory web sites to get pictures of female students. He got help from a friend and wrote computer software to make a website that allowed people to see girls on campus. People loved it.People shared it with their friends who shared it with their friends so quickly that it got 22,000 hits and crashed the Harvard server.

Mark was put on six month academic suspension for hacking and other things. A six month suspension for a college student is a very bad thing. But it gave Mark a chance to work on his project that he called Facebook. He faced many obstacles, but never gave up.

You probably guessed Mark’s last name–Zuckerberg. His net worth as of December, 2015 is about $46 billion. It all started due to a failure-his girlfriend left him. Then another failure–academic suspension.

When you have a failure in life, don’t let it get you down. “All things work together for good to those who love God…” Romans 8:28.  If life gives you lemons, make lemonade.

Comments

2 responses to “Failure can bring success”

  1. Brad Stanton Avatar
    Brad Stanton

    Yes, I wrote about this story a couple of years ago, but I thought it was an ancient Chinese story. thanks so much for the reply. http://bradstanton.com/2013/08/10/when-bad-things-happen-be-happy/

    Reply
  2. Pazlo Avatar
    Pazlo

    I heard or read a thing a long time ago, attributed to native American wisdom, about perceiving something as all-good or all-bad.
    A person speaks to a wise elder and says “You must be very proud to have a son, one day he may be a great warrior.”
    “Maybe”, was the elder’s reply.
    Years later, a war began, and a person said “You must be scared for your son, now a brave warrior, who may lose his life in battle.”
    “Maybe” was the reply.
    His son fell from his horse just before battle and broke his leg.
    “You must be disappointed,” a person said, “now your son will not be able to go to battle and be a hero.”
    “Maybe.” came the reply.
    The warriors set off to the conflict and were devastated. All were killed.
    “You must be glad,” said a person “your son was not killed in the battle.”
    “Maybe.” came the reply.

    I may not be retelling the tale effectively, but it parallels your post.
    Something that may seem good may ultimately prove not so, and vice versa.

    Thanks for reminding me of this.

    Seek peace,

    Paz

    Reply

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