Some good advice on succeeding

Today I read a great quotation by the Chinese philosopher Confuscius: "Our greatest glory is not in never falling but in rising every time we fall."

There is no shame in failing, Kieran. Often we lack the knowledge or skills necessary to succeed, but rarely do we ever know what we need to understand or master a chllenged until we've tried it and come up a little short. Failing is way of learning. For example, did you know that Thomas Edison tried 999 times to invent the light bulb but failed each time? On the 1000th time, he finally figured out what was wrong and got it right!

Today, no one thinks of Thomas Edison as a "failure." Instead we think of his great successes (inventing the light bulb as well as dozens of other inventions, such as the ability to record electronically). Arguably, though, he failed many, many more times than he succeeded.

What would have happened if Thomas Edison had quit, if he'd never rose again every time he failed? No one would know who he was. And maybe we wouldn't have the light bulb today!