Fun with Character: Dare to Fail Greatly
“Only those who dare to fail greatly can achieve greatly.”
Robert F. Kennedy
Many famous people, both current and historical, failed miserably before they achieved success. Did you know that Walt Disney was fired by a newspaper editor because “he lacked imagination and had no good ideas?” He went bankrupt several times before he built Disneyland. In fact, the proposed park was rejected by the city of Anaheim because it would only attract riffraff. How about Babe Ruth – he is famous for his home run record, but for decades, he also held the record for strikeouts. He hit 714 home runs and struck out 1,330 times in his career. Can you picture Michael Jordan being cut from his high school basketball team? Check out the link below for some famous people's failures. Select a few that your students would know and see if they can guess who they are.
To process this activity, ask these questions:
Were you surprised to discover that these very successful people had failures?
Where do you think they would be now if they hadn’t kept trying?
What do you think they used for motivation?
Can you pick one that you can think about the next time you want to give up?