How to learn from past experiences

We can all learn lessons from past experiences. In fact, some of the biggest successes have come from years of trying and trying again.

According to legend, Thomas Edison’s teachers told him he was “too stupid to learn anything” before he went on to invent some world-changing devices like the electric lamp and the movie camera.

Every car features windshield wipers, but this invention was ignored for years. Inventor Mary Anderson persevered against accusations that the device would distract drivers and ultimately the safety-enhancing wipers became a standard feature for the automobile industry.

Alexander Miles’s daughter nearly died due to the lack of safety features in late nineteenth-century elevators. He decided to make sure no parent experienced the same scare again and in 1887 patented automatic doors that shaped our modern elevator designs.

Walt Disney was fired by a newspaper editor because he “lacked imagination” and was later rejected 300 times when trying to sell his Mickey Mouse idea to inventors. Oprah Winfrey encountered horrendous childhood trauma before succeeding scholastically independently. Later she encountered further abuse in her early days in the media world before achieving international fame and success. Steven Spielberg was rejected by the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts multiple times. At the time of writing, he has won three Academy Awards and directed over thirty feature films.

This experience of rejection and failure often teaches us lessons we wouldn’t have otherwise learned.

• What lessons have you learned in life that have helped you to get to where you are today?
• Were there any lessons talked about in the video that you particularly liked?

Feloni, F. and Lutz, A. (2014). 23 Incredibly Successful People Who Failed At First Business Insider, published online 7 March 2014