“The greatest teacher, failure is.”

I am proud to admit that I have watched every Star Wars movie at least once, and I have watched the original trilogy many, many, many times.  For the last 3 years, a new Star Wars movie has come out around Christmas time.  My son, youngest daughter, and I have made it an annual tradition to go see the latest release on Christmas Eve day (full disclosure - in the old days, I was one of those last minute shoppers and would have still been shopping on Christmas Eve - either I have been rehabilitated or online shopping is the world's most outstanding invention, or maybe it's a combination of both).  Anyway, there is a scene in this most recent release ("The Last Jedi") in which the wise Jedi Master, Yoda (technically, he's dead, so it's his "force shadow") is once again sitting down with his former apprentice, Luke Skywalker, teaching him another important lesson.  In this case, Yoda is teaching Luke about failure.  I won't spoil the movie (you can look online for that!), just trust me.

Yoda uses his own unique style and tells Luke, "The greatest teacher, failure is."  As soon as I heard that, I made a mental note to myself to write the quote down as soon as the movie was over.  When you really stop and think about it, Yoda is absolutely right (of course he is - he is a Jedi Master after all!).  As I think about lessons that I have learned over the years, the ones that really stick with me were the ones that I learned after some kind of failure.  A few months ago, I came across a catchy acronym for the word, "fail" (first attempt in learning).  I know, it's a little too cute, but it definitely makes a lot of sense.

There are a number of quotes about failure - here are some of my personal favorites:

Thomas Edison: "I have not failed.  I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work." (here, Edison is referring to the fact that he reportedly tried at least 10,000 times to build a light bulb that worked before he got it right).

Henry Ford: "Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently."

Johnny Cash: "You build on failure.  You use it as a stepping stone.  Close the door on the past.  You don't try to forget the mistakes, but you don't dwell on it.  You don't let it have any of your energy, or any of your time, or any of your space."

LeBron James: "You have to be able to accept failure to get better."

Winston Churchill: "Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm."

Malcom Forbes: "Failure is success if we learn from it."

Author unknown: "Life is a strange teacher.  It gives the test first and the lesson after."

All of these quotes (from very successful individuals, I might add) all say the same thing - just like Master Yoda's quote.  Failure is a wonderful teacher.  Learn from your mistakes and move on.