The aforementioned quote is often attributed to a man who is considered to be one of the greatest physicists of all time, Albert Einstein. Einstein was born in Germany but acquired Swiss citizenship before turning 17. At an early age, Einstein was already way ahead of his peers especially in math and physics. That is why, he dedicated most of his life researching and writing scientific works.
Since most of Einstein’s published works revolve around physics, there is no written proof that he wrote such generalist quote. As a matter of fact, there were other prominent figures who can be attributed with a similar quote.
For instance, Scottish Author Samuel Smiles published the book “Self-Help” in 1859 where he included the quote:
“He who never made a mistake, never made a discovery.”
Another is former US President Theodore Roosevelt’s serialized autobiography in 1901 he stated,
“The only man who makes no mistakes is the man who never does anything.”
Smiles book was published 20 years before Einstein was born while Roosevelt’s autobiography was serialized when Einstein was around 22. We can only assume that perhaps sometime Einstein`s life, he may have heard those words from those men and that inspired him to keep doing and discovering new things.
Einstein was never afraid of making mistakes
Even a legendary and influential genius like Einstein had made plenty of mistakes. In fact, he had to prove his formula on theory of relativity several times. It didn’t take him a year or two, it took him decades to keep proving and testing such formula.
In 2009, a book entitled “Einstein’s Mistakes: The Human Failings of Genius” was published. It was described as a book containing the combination of Einstein’s brilliance and blunder. Yet despite of all the failures, when you type Albert Einstein on google, the top three search results would be his bio, his IQ level, and his discoveries – nothing about his mistakes.
Why making mistakes is important?
If you have seen someone going through hardship because of some mistake they have made, you can probably attest that have come out to be a different kind of person. That being said some mistakes should not be made and some others must happen in order for one to make progress. Here are some of the benefits to making mistakes:
- Making mistakes gives us strength. Doing something for the first time makes us uneasy, anxious, and scared. Perhaps fear of failure has something to do with that. Remember your first solo international flight? You may have felt scared while going through airport security. You also checked your flight schedule every second as you worry about missing your flight. But after you came back home from that trip, you felt so proud of yourself that you can’t wait for your next travel abroad!
- Making mistakes allows us to rediscover humility. Mistakes make us human. They are nothing but part of this life. Hence in order to attain progress and reach your destination, you need to navigate steep, narrow, and winding roads all because you took the wrong route. Now, you have the power to turn this rediscovery into overcoming your fear of failure.
- Making mistakes makes us laugh. We’ve heard of the sayings ‘laugh at your mistakes’ and ‘laughing is the best medicine’. How boring life can be without humor. Laugh, if instead of sugar you accidentally put salt in your coffee. Laugh, if you were so in a hurry that you picked up your TV remote instead of your phone. Laughing makes us pause in life and ponder on our priorities.
The thing is, we cannot let our mistakes limit our experiences and our growth as an individual. Also, we don’t want to be stuck in life. You may discover more about yourself that is beneficial to your well-being. More importantly, making mistakes should not be a precursor to failing, rather, it should be a stepping stone to learning new things and ultimately, becoming successful.
The necessity for constant learning
Many will think that learning stops once you are done with School, after all isn`t it the whole point of going to school, to teach you how to navigate life and excel in your career… Unfortunately this way of thinking will get you into a lot of trouble, since most schools do not really do such a good job to prepare you for life, and even if they did, they cannot prepare you for everything. Luckily, our current world has tons of opportunity for learning whatever your heart desires. If you are still not convinced you should burden your brain with additional knowledge here are some more points to try to convince you:
- It boosts your confidence.
- It opens up new opportunities.
- It reduces stress.
- It feels good to master something new
Ever have that feeling of gaining confidence after reading a book? Let’s say a new knowledge on history or science. You immediately share it with your friends and talk about novel ideas like an expert.
At a certain age, we find ourselves mastering and developing at least one skill. While there’s nothing wrong with that, we might also consider learning a new skill that can help us adapt in the changing times. More like computer and technology skills. Most jobs nowadays require tasks that can only be done digitally. So, if we want to expand our horizons, let’s develop our skills.
Trying a new hobby can undoubtedly relieve stress. All your worries and concerns will be diverted into something exciting. Try squeezing a social dance class in your weekly schedule, or a half an hour of calligraphy practice every day. Just do something in a week that you can look forward to. This may be temporary but surely, you will get that happy disposition back.
If you ever tried fighting, dancing, drawing or playing an instrument, you know that in your very first lessons you will kind of suck, however once you master that one skill, you can start enjoying it. As you get better and better at it, you will not only enjoying it, but other people will also notice your skills
Master your instrument, Master the music, and then. forget all that shit and just play
Charlie Parker