Daily Inspiration #112
George Bernard Shaw
Failures

George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950), known at his insistence simply as Bernard Shaw, was an Irish playwright, critic and polemicist whose influence on Western theatre, culture and politics extended from the 1880s to his death and beyond. He wrote more than sixty plays, including major works such as Man and Superman (1902), Pygmalion (1912) and Saint Joan (1923). With a range incorporating both contemporary satire and historical allegory, Shaw became the leading dramatist of his generation, and in 1925 was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.

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This is a great quote!

"When I was young, I observed that nine out of ten things I did were failures. So I did ten times more work."

It's funny...

A lot of people think the 10x rule came from that book, The 10x Rule.

In truth this idea has been around a much longer time.

I grew up on a massive garden.

My parents could have fed half of our small town on it I'm sure.

One thing that never changed was how we planted the seed.

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Whether we were planting it in a hole or in a furrow, we always did one thing the same.

We planted more than one seed in each spot.

Normally it was 3 or more.

We never knew exactly which seeds would produce the best plants and harvest.

So, we planted extra seed so we could later thin the crops, if necessary, to raise our chance of the best harvest.

If we planted 4 melon seeds in a mound we could expect that at least one of those seeds would produce a large, healthy plant that produced well.

If we planted several seeds every 6 inches or so for corn we would thin out the weaker ones to again raise our chances of the best harvest.

Life works like this also.

We must plant more seeds than we expect to harvest.

Knowing that at least one will grow large and healthy.

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Knowing that with this approach we can have a bountiful harvest we call success.

So, know that a lot of what you do will fail or even backfire.

Understand it and do more.

Plan more seeds than you need so your success is inevitable.

Personally I would rather be thinning possibilities than hoping for chance.

Remember what George had to say about it.

"When I was young, I observed that nine out of ten things I did were failures. So I did ten times more work."

Thanks for reading,
Michael David
@michaeldavid

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