Quotes About Failure

Leaders who fail to prune their pride will meet demise. That's not a guess, it's a guarantee. With pride, it's not a matter of 'if' we will fall, but 'when.' There are no exceptions.

To try and act like we haven't had great progress is not true. Obama didn't fail - he changed the psyche of the nation and, in some ways, the world.

My book 'Things Get Better' has normalised the idea that it's OK to fail and it's OK to seek professional help from psychologists.

It's difficult because we tend to overrate the pain of failure. We fear it too much. That's research that emerges from psychology. We think it's going to be worse than it really is. And, I think, as we get a bit older, really after we leave school or college, we quickly stop experimenting.

When government programs fail, it is often because public officials are clueless about how human beings think and act.

I tend to avoid interviews, I don't have a publicist and fear of failure is still very much alive in my personal life.

The things that I have done that haven't been as successful have been things that have been largely out of the public view, which is great. It's terrible, when you're a theater writer, to have a big flop publicly.

When you're under a microscope from an early age, you realize that people aren't always going to like you. And that's OK. And you're going to fail publicly, and that's OK, too.

If you're going to publish a book, you probably are going to make a fool of yourself.

I have seen journals with good financial backing and editorial support die because they looked so bad nobody wanted to publish them.

For a book publisher, there is hardly a more dangerous category than that of celebrity autobiography. Forget who it's by, most books of this kind not only fail but fail big, since they are invariably expensive.

The conventional wisdom is that authors get only one chance in this world. If your first novel doesn't sell, publishers and bookstores lose interest, and your career stalls, barring an act of God or Oprah.

My first two books did nada. I ended up paying the publishers.

They pulled Resurrection out of the theatres, so it was running in New York and I was nominated for the Oscar and there was no ad in the newspapers to say it was running. So it was literally killed.

I would be lying if I said I did not feel bad when 'Shamitabh' failed, but I was proud to be associated with a film like this. If it were easy to know the pulse of the audience, then all movies would be blockbusters.

If the government has any courage, it will punish those at the top of failed banks. Accountability is critical in every area of human endeavour - there has to be a penalty for failure; otherwise, it's only a matter of time before the economic pain our banks have caused to so many innocent businesses and homeowners is forgotten.

Innovation is a big risk. It can also be a big reward - but a big punishment if you fail.

When you fail, things get real. In fact, they get real real. If your success was a high profile success, then your failure will be a high profile failure. Opportunities and 'friendships' will evaporate. Failure shines a bright light on all relationships. The ones that last are pure and true, which is a true gift.

The pursuit of approval usually ends in disaster.

Only in our failures are we absolutely alone. Only in the pursuit of failure can a person really be free. Losers may be the avant garde of the modern age.

I think I take on a little more responsibility when push comes to shove. I'm not scared to fail.

I couldn't sell air conditioners on a 98-degree day. When I demonstrated them in a showroom, I pushed the wrong button and blew the circuit.

In some ways, you have to fail some. You have to figure that stuff out, because if I didn't have an Hakeem Olajuwon, would I have been able to achieve the heights that I did achieve? I don't think so. He pushed me, and I pushed him.

It feels bad when a film doesn't work; everyone puts in a lot of effort to make a movie. The positive side to failure - they make me work harder.