Fall seven times get up eight times
July 4, 2012 8:56 PM Subscribe
We've all heard the story of how Edison failed repeatedly before coming up with the light bulb. What other individuals failed and failed before succeeding (in any category)? Tell me more about them.
Peter Higgs had his paper postulating the existence of the Higgs boson rejected for publication in CERN's scientific journal.
48 years later, the LHC at CERN provided proof of Higgs boson from the rejected paper!
A little weirdly specific, but timely!
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 9:02 PM on July 4, 2012 [4 favorites]
48 years later, the LHC at CERN provided proof of Higgs boson from the rejected paper!
A little weirdly specific, but timely!
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 9:02 PM on July 4, 2012 [4 favorites]
The first commercially practical antibiotics were the sulfonamides. The researchers at Bayer had an intuition that a certain class of synthetic dyes could have antibacterial properties, and they spent years testing hundreds of candidates before they found one that worked.
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 9:03 PM on July 4, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 9:03 PM on July 4, 2012 [1 favorite]
Most scientists fail many times before succeeding... and then they fail some more.
posted by two lights above the sea at 9:15 PM on July 4, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by two lights above the sea at 9:15 PM on July 4, 2012 [1 favorite]
Walt Disney left for Hollywood with little more than the clothes on his back. Of his first three cartoon series, one was a failure, and the one that succeeded was stolen from him. The the next one was an unarguable success.
posted by wnissen at 9:16 PM on July 4, 2012
posted by wnissen at 9:16 PM on July 4, 2012
Judd Apatow's writing/producing career highlights were, at one time, The Ben Stiller Show (awarded but cancelled very early), The Critic (at best a cult show), The Cable Guy (a critical and commercial flop), Freaks and Geeks (cancelled after one shortened season) and Undeclared (cancelled after one season.) Among a ton of projects that never saw the light of day.
Then he produced Anchroman and wrote/directed The 40-Year-Old Virgin and became one of the most powerful producers in Hollywood.
posted by Navelgazer at 10:12 PM on July 4, 2012
Then he produced Anchroman and wrote/directed The 40-Year-Old Virgin and became one of the most powerful producers in Hollywood.
posted by Navelgazer at 10:12 PM on July 4, 2012
Milton S. Hershey had to close up three different candy manufacturing businesses, in Philadelphia, Chicago, and then New York, before starting the successful Lancaster Caramel Company with funds scraped together by himself and a business partner (Hershey's own family long since past the point of loaning money to him).
Even then, that business only served Hershey by letting him generate enough capital to open a separate chocolate making business, whose brand we still know today.
posted by radwolf76 at 10:34 PM on July 4, 2012
Even then, that business only served Hershey by letting him generate enough capital to open a separate chocolate making business, whose brand we still know today.
posted by radwolf76 at 10:34 PM on July 4, 2012
Norm Larsen failed 39 times in a row to create a Water Displacing penetrating oil before he hit upon the formula for WD-40.
posted by radwolf76 at 10:38 PM on July 4, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by radwolf76 at 10:38 PM on July 4, 2012 [1 favorite]
Kurt Warner
Dr. Seuss's first book, And To Think I Saw It On Mulberry Street, was rejected 27 times before being published.
posted by SisterHavana at 10:46 PM on July 4, 2012
Dr. Seuss's first book, And To Think I Saw It On Mulberry Street, was rejected 27 times before being published.
posted by SisterHavana at 10:46 PM on July 4, 2012
David Bowie became an overnight success 10 years after starting his musical career after 6 bands, 4 flop albums and 16 singles only one of which anyone bought.
posted by merocet at 10:50 PM on July 4, 2012
posted by merocet at 10:50 PM on July 4, 2012
RA Dickey came from an extremely poor background, was sexually abused as a child and contemplated suicide, but found his escape in baseball. Coming out of college, he was drafted in a high spot, only to find out he does not actually have an ulnar collateral ligament in his right arm, which is a huge deal for a guy that throws baseballs with that arm, and that high signing bonus went away.
He was terrible as a traditional starting pitcher (gave up a record number of home runs at one point) and bounced around the minor leagues with occasional major league callups trying to learn the knuckleball, which is (for you non-baseball fans) like saying "Okay, I'll just learn alchemy and be an alchemist", for a number of years. In his first start as a knuckleballer in the majors, he gave up 6 home runs and got sent back to the minors. In 2010, he was initially a Triple A player, got called up to the majors, and was the bright spot on an otherwise terrible Mets team. This year, he's been one of the best pitchers in the National League as a 37 year old man. So far, anyway.
posted by Ghostride The Whip at 11:02 PM on July 4, 2012 [4 favorites]
He was terrible as a traditional starting pitcher (gave up a record number of home runs at one point) and bounced around the minor leagues with occasional major league callups trying to learn the knuckleball, which is (for you non-baseball fans) like saying "Okay, I'll just learn alchemy and be an alchemist", for a number of years. In his first start as a knuckleballer in the majors, he gave up 6 home runs and got sent back to the minors. In 2010, he was initially a Triple A player, got called up to the majors, and was the bright spot on an otherwise terrible Mets team. This year, he's been one of the best pitchers in the National League as a 37 year old man. So far, anyway.
posted by Ghostride The Whip at 11:02 PM on July 4, 2012 [4 favorites]
Harrison Ford somewhat famously failed to make a breakthrough in voice-overs, landed some mediocre acting jobs, and then quit to pursue carpentry as a profession for a few years. During that time he made some cabinets for George Lucas and through the magic of Hollywood, and uh... regular wood, he went on to become the biggest movie star of all time.
posted by Winnemac at 11:18 PM on July 4, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by Winnemac at 11:18 PM on July 4, 2012 [1 favorite]
Mobile developer Rovio made 51 games and went through hundreds of concepts before making the game Angry Birds.
posted by hellojed at 11:41 PM on July 4, 2012
posted by hellojed at 11:41 PM on July 4, 2012
One of the canonical business-book examples of a man who failed before he succeeded is Henry Ford, whose first company went bankrupt (this after he left a secure job at the Edison Illuminating Company).
Failure is almost a prerequisite for a political career. Barack Obama -- although he had been elected to the Illinois State Senate in 1996 -- lost his first bid for Congressional office in 2000.
posted by dhartung at 11:53 PM on July 4, 2012
Failure is almost a prerequisite for a political career. Barack Obama -- although he had been elected to the Illinois State Senate in 1996 -- lost his first bid for Congressional office in 2000.
posted by dhartung at 11:53 PM on July 4, 2012
JK Rowling's little book, Harry Potter, was rejected by 12 publishers before finally being picked up by a small publishing agency, Bloomsbury. Even then she was told to "get a day job" because there wasn't any money in children's books.
posted by littlesq at 12:21 AM on July 5, 2012
posted by littlesq at 12:21 AM on July 5, 2012
Steve Jobs: college dropout. Creates Apple computer in a garage with Steve Wozniak.
Company is wildly successful, but disagreement with board leads Jobs to leave Apple.
Starts NeXT computers which ultimately fails.
Purchases George Lucas's computer graphics division, which later becomes Pixar.
Pixar makes Toy Story, the highest grossing movie of the year.
Jobs returns to Apple, ushering in a new era in creative computer products: Ipod, Iphone, Ipad, System X (based on the NeXT operating system). The company is very profitable, briefly surpassing ExxonMobil as the most valuable U.S. corporation.
posted by hick57 at 4:10 AM on July 5, 2012
Company is wildly successful, but disagreement with board leads Jobs to leave Apple.
Starts NeXT computers which ultimately fails.
Purchases George Lucas's computer graphics division, which later becomes Pixar.
Pixar makes Toy Story, the highest grossing movie of the year.
Jobs returns to Apple, ushering in a new era in creative computer products: Ipod, Iphone, Ipad, System X (based on the NeXT operating system). The company is very profitable, briefly surpassing ExxonMobil as the most valuable U.S. corporation.
posted by hick57 at 4:10 AM on July 5, 2012
More, previously:
Please provide some anecdotal evidence that it can, as you claim, get better...
From Awful to Awesome
Fall down seven times, get up eight.
posted by MonkeyToes at 4:37 AM on July 5, 2012
Please provide some anecdotal evidence that it can, as you claim, get better...
From Awful to Awesome
Fall down seven times, get up eight.
posted by MonkeyToes at 4:37 AM on July 5, 2012
Kepler. Kepler set out to prove that the 5 known planets (at the time) all moved in perfect geometrical formation. He was trying to prove that God acted in nature with perfection. In his mind, the discovery of the elliptical orbits, and the Laws of Planetary Motion, were failures. His work refuted his own original position. Of course, his work also changed the course of science and the history of world. There is a great book about this, called Sleepwalker.
posted by Flood at 5:09 AM on July 5, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by Flood at 5:09 AM on July 5, 2012 [1 favorite]
Richard Nixon was a two-term Vice President when he lost the 1960 presidential election to JFK. Then he lost the 1962 California gubernatorial election. In his concession speech he said, ""You won't have Nixon to kick around anymore because, gentlemen, this is my last press conference." He came back to win two terms as president by large margins.
posted by kirkaracha at 6:57 AM on July 5, 2012
posted by kirkaracha at 6:57 AM on July 5, 2012
Krebs' paper describing his discovery of the TCA cycle, a fundamental part of metabolism that occurs in basically everything from bacteria to elephants, was rejected from Nature. (It was published in Enzymologia, a journal founded the previous year; Nature published a rather snooty announcement about its founding.) Adding insult to injury his colleagues initially dismissed the TCA cycle as an "unimportant side reaction." Krebs later won the Nobel Prize for discovering it.
posted by en forme de poire at 8:29 AM on July 5, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by en forme de poire at 8:29 AM on July 5, 2012 [1 favorite]
Henry Ford failed at two automobile companies before starting the Ford Motor Company, then produced 8 models of cars of decent success before the Model T transformed the world.
posted by Turkey Glue at 9:39 AM on July 5, 2012
posted by Turkey Glue at 9:39 AM on July 5, 2012
L. Frank Baum held many different types of jobs, and failed at most of them, before he wrote the Wizard of Oz.
posted by girlmightlive at 1:16 PM on July 5, 2012
posted by girlmightlive at 1:16 PM on July 5, 2012
Michael Jordan:
I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I've been trusted 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.posted by Lexica at 6:40 PM on July 5, 2012 [1 favorite]
Jordan also had an unsuccessful baseball career before returning to hoops. Even a legendary, world class athlete with championship rings (who would go on to win more rings) wound up riding the bus with the has-beens and never-will-bes down in the minors.
posted by Ghostride The Whip at 8:05 PM on July 5, 2012
posted by Ghostride The Whip at 8:05 PM on July 5, 2012
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by vecchio at 8:58 PM on July 4, 2012