SENIOR MOMENT: Success over failure

By BETTY MUNSEY/Columnist

CBS Sunday Morning News ran an unlikely feature on failure this past Sunday using a 1959 Edsel as its backdrop. According to the news program, Ford introduced the car in 1958 hoping to sell nearly 200,000 the first year. The Edsel was doomed for failure when less than 100,000 were sold causing Ford to suffer a loss of hundreds of millions of dollars before it was removed from the production lines three years later. Yet investors who have collected these classic cars that would have sold for about $3,000 then are now sitting on a gold mine with their current worth approaching $200,000.
Seniors are not immune to a sense of failure regardless of how hard we try to succeed. Negative comments can further an individual’s sense of despair or discouragement. As the news segment noted, individuals learn more from failures than from successes. A successful person of any age has a strong backbone to stand up to injustices, a wishbone to set and work toward achieving goals and a funny bone to keep our humor when all else fails. Of the three types of people, there are those who make things happen, those who watch things happen and those who wonder what happened.
The first time we tried to walk as a toddler, we fell; but we tried again and we fell again. The first time we tried to swim we probably sank below the surface of the water, but we tried again and hopefully today can swim or at least float. How many swings did it take to finally connect the baseball with the bat? Or on a more adult level, how many attempts does it take even today to successfully parallel park a vehicle? With each failure, we must get up, wipe ourselves off and try again.
R.H. Macy, founder of the New York-based store best known for its Thanksgiving Day Parade, failed seven times as a businessman before achieving ultimate success.  Babe Ruth struck out 1,330 times before scoring 714 homeruns and becoming a baseball legend.
Handsome debonair Colonel Sanders, father of Kentucky Fried Chicken, developed a delicious fried chicken recipe and had the dream of selling it in different outlets. His dream almost became a disaster as he faced rejection after rejection with his business plan. Before he found success, he was facing foreclosure on his home, was driving a beat-up car and was living on a $105 monthly Social Security check. Of course the end of his story is that someone finally took a chance on his tasty chicken and the rest is history.
For the next several weeks we will have the opportunity to watch some of the world’s top athletes compete in the 2008 Olympic Summer Games in Beijing, China. These young people have dedicated their lives and finances to earning the right to compete knowing that failure is only a few seconds behind the winners in their competitions. The will face their fear of failure head-on and strive for excellence.  We, too, can do the same, regardless of our age or stage in life.
A retired Extension agent, Betty Munsey lives and farms in Bland County.