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I am Ron White, memory training expert ,  memory speaker, and two-time USA Memory Champion. I would like to share my thought on Albert Einstein, who had possibly the greatest mind of anyone who had ever lived.

Einstein was born in Ulm, Germany in 1879. He was fortunate from the very beginning to have parents who allowed him the freedom to explore and ask questions. This was probably the main reason why his brain was always taking him in search of answers to probing questions few had ever tackled. It was also one of the main reasons he was not afraid to take risks, or make mistakes. When he came to the United States and was teaching at Princeton someone once asked him if he needed anything. Einstein’s humble reply was: “A desk, a pen, a pad of paper, and a large wastebaskets for all my mistakes.”

Einstein had learned the value of not giving up. He realized early in his life that mistakes are what shapes a person, and what allows them to stretch to seek out answers and discoveries. As he once said, “Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.”

Many people are afraid to take risks because they are afraid to fail. Everyone make mistakes, it’s all part of being human. The way someone handles these mistakes shows the ‘cut of their jib’ as they used to say. Risk takers realize that mistakes are part of finding answers, so they proceed anyway. Successful people learn from their mistakes and keep on going, taking with them the knowledge that although they didn’t succeed this time doesn’t mean they can’t make some adjustments and continue to find what will.

The last two decades of Albert Einstein’s life were devoted to developing a unified field theory, and even as smart as he was he was not successful. That didn’t stop him from trying. How many people are persistent enough to continue to seek the answer to something after 20 years? A lesser person would have given up decades ago.

Think of how many people were successful after failing continuously. Take Thomas Edison for another example. He tried unsuccessfully over 1,000 times to create the light bulb, but he didn’t give up. When asked why he failed so many times he simple said: “I have not failed. I’ve just found 1,000 ways that won’t work.”

If you have been stung by failure at some point in your life, and now you are hesitant to take another chance, think of what our lives would be like if men like Thomas Edison or Albert Einstein had given up when they were not successful.

Using a quote from Einstein: “The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing.”

For more information on Albert Einstein, listen to the CDs on “How To Develop The Mind of Einstein” available on this site.

 

Sources:

Collected Quotes from Albert Einstein: Stanford University – http://rescomp.stanford.edu/~cheshire/EinsteinQuotes.html