Failures: The Most Powerful Weapon
By Prajeet Sangamnerkar
Compare and Contrast (Beethoven and Bach)
Beethoven and Bach went through many of the same things. For example, both composers went through some disability through their life; Bach became blind while Beethoven lost his hearing. In this case, having the disability is the failure.Surprisingly, both of the musicians did not complain. Their every day life was mostly changed, but both composers seemed to be alright with the way things are. Although there is no known evidence of this, Bach and Beethoven's concentration was most probably increased. Bach did not and could not concentrate what was around him; as a result, his brain concentrated on his hearing much better. His music has been just the same as before. Same for Beethoven; his ears could not hear so he had to purely concentrate on what he played making his concentration almost doubled. His music also stayed the same. New research in the University of Bath(UK)[Link in Bibliography], showed that people who have one less sensory output have much more brain usage on a another sense. The reason I mentioned this is because we know for sure that Bach and Beethoven did not stop playing or creating music even with their disability. This clearly shows that they were perfectly fine with their disability. Going back to the main point, the disabilities of both musicians was an obstacle that they went through so that they can still be successful. Without this obstacle, they would have been much keener to make a mistake somewhere else. Bach and Beethoven have gone through some of the same failures.
As both musician's have similarities, the also have distinguished differences. Bach had become an orphan at age 10. He found shelter in his older brother's house. Although, he was kicked out of the house at age 15, resulting him to go to the choir school for boys. On the contrary, none of these challenges stopped Bach from playing what he loved. This led him to become one of the greatest musician's in the world later in his life. For Bach, the failure was becoming an orphan. Although, he did not use these roadblocks to bring him down. Bach used these barricades to make himself stronger inside so that when he encountered another situation like this, he would not feel anything emotionally as much. On the other hand, Beethoven's challenges were much more severe and long lasting. Beethoven's childhood was worst than anyone could have expected. His dad was a very big alcoholic. He made Beethoven play the piano every day; and when he messed up one key, every time he would slam the piano cover on his hands. Although, when Beethoven played good, his father showed no sign of appreciation; but the worst part was at night ,his dad would go outside and drink. He would come back at around 1 am with his buddies. When his father came, he would smack Beethoven in the head to wake up. Then he would tell him to play the piano. Like before, his dad would slap his knuckles when he messed up one key. Even worst, his buddies would criticize him all night. As a result, Beethoven had a close relationship with his mother; but she unfortunately died when he was a teenager. This left him no one to care for. His hope was all gone. All Beethoven had was his piano. Later, when his dad died, he started making a career. His early life was much more than a nightmare to anyone today. Beethoven's dad would surely have been arrested and in jail for a very long time for child abuse. But at the time, there were no strict enforced rules for child abuse. At the same time, since his dad was a alcoholic, it was not clear whether he meant all the abuse or not to Beethoven. Regardless, Beethoven realized that all that time he got hit on his hands, his dad was showing what happens when you fail in life. When his mother died, even though he went through all the sadness, ultimately it made him stronger as a person. So he took his past's knowledge and used it in the future. Simply put, he learned from his failures. When he grew up, he was one of the best pianists in the world. He was not offended by many people at all. Getting back to the main point, history clearly shows that Bach's and Beethoven's childhood was much more different; Bach's life being much easier than Beethoven's. Although, without the failures they both encountered, it is highly unlikely that they would be where they are now in history. To conclude, Beethoven and Bach had many differences through out their life.
Sequence/Process(Bill Gates)
Bill Gates has also been through some very rough times. Gates started a company called Traf-o-Data that monitored traffic patterns in Seattle. They got around $20,000 profit. There company was not too much of a success. Everything had loose ends, there were many bugs, and overall it was not really good. Gates was not happy about that and left the company to someone else. Although many would say 20 thousand dollars is a lot, if you truly think about it, it is not, considering the time he spent to create that company and make everything. Gates knew that he had failed his first company and he could most probably be living on the streets if he messes up his second company. So he planned everything out for his second company. He used the help of his really good friend Allen to start it. He looked at the mistakes he did in Traf-o-Data and corrected them right away. Gates also added some new things to his plans that were not overlooked before. This company was truly planned out and everything was thought through. All of Gates efforts were worth it because this company became the worlds richest company. The name of the company was Microsoft. That exact same company made Bill Gates the richest man in the world.
Bill's first company was a big fail for everyone. This includes Gates, Gates's family, his investors, and so on. This made his confidence go down. But he still persevered through it and with conviction created a whole new company. For this company, he looked back at his failures and corrected them so that he would not make the same mistake again. These failures also made him realize some other possible failures. On the other hand, if he did not have those failures while creating Microsoft, he would have most probably failed Microsoft just like he failed Traf-o-Data. Bill Gates became the richest man in the world with the worlds best company by correcting his failures.
Cause and Effect(Steve Jobs)
When Steve Jobs first graduated from Harvard University, he started a company called The Lisa. This was around the 1980s. He was very ambitious at the time. The Lisa was a desktop that had lots of processing power and was for people who demanded performance on their computers. Jobs used millions of dollars into his product. He was confident it would be a big hit in the market. But things did not go the way he had hoped. Steve's products were inadequate. The Lisa was a big fail. This computer was worth around a $1000 dollars at the time; it was specifically meant for other businesses and people who want high performance. Very few people bought it. People working for The Lisa decided to kick their own Leader and decide someone else. Steve Jobs was jobless for some time with lots of sadness. His reputation was completely ruined. No one respected him at all in the business world. This was where I think most people had the turning point, or a time when they gave up on themselves and just worked in a cheap place with some money. Although, after debating for some time, Steve Jobs decided that he was going to go work for some other company with a less money so that he can save up for his next big idea. His next big idea was a big hit. He made the company called Apple. Now, you see apple products in your everyday life. This clearly shows that Steve Jobs's company was a huge success.
Steve Jobs had many failures in his early business life. This caused different effects at different times. The first one is making it and graduating into Harvard University. This is one of the best universities, especially in academics. When someone does make it into that university, they are considered to be very smart. The effect of this is that other people are more confident in him because his overall education was in a very well known place. The second cause and effect is his first business called The Lisa. The cause is that Steve Jobs was not successfully able to sell his first product. The effect is that he has a bad reputation overall. The reason he got a bad reputation is because his first product was not successful at all and many other companies are afraid he might do the same to their own companies. This bad impression made finding a job really hard for him. On the top of that, The Lisa used millions of dollars just to create. He had no choice but to join another company. Steve definitely must have used a loan to create The Lisa, and now he must repay it. The bank probably would not have let him take another loan because his first loan was very high. As a result, he chose to just earn some money in a lower position and earn a little amount of money. When Steve Jobs went through many failures at once, he did not just sit there and wait for his obstacles to take over him. Instead he planned ahead of his life that will make him go over the obstacle. Making the Apple company was technically him going over his obstacles. This is because he looked at his past mistakes and then did not repeat them in his second company. This made him go over his obstacle. The effect of that is that Steve Jobs gets to be the CEO of Apple Inc.
Problem and Solution(Albert Einstein)
Albert Einstein had many problems and solution in his early lifetime. His first problem is teachers and students making fun of his talking and speech. A time when he applied problem solution to his life is when his teachers made fun of him. When a teacher makes fun of you, it is a whole different story. That clearly means that they hates you. Since Einstein could not speak very well in his early ages, the teachers thought he was stupid inside too. But that was not the case at all. Einstein knew it. When Einstein made even the simplest mistake, the teacher would call him out. As a result, Einstein learned by himself that a mistake in real life could cause his life. So then he tried his best not to make a small mistake like that again. Also, to be clear, this is a direct inference; meaning it is not clear whether or not this happened. But it is safe to assume it did because Einstein's later life did not contain too many mistakes. To summarize, Albert Einstein had many hardships, but he went through them which made him one of the most successful people in history.
Below is Albert Einstien
Description/Definition(Founding Fathers of Science)
Galileo Galilei, discovered the planets near Earth. He had a theory on how the Earth moved in a circular path around the Sun. Galileo first presented his ideas to the church. The church thought that the idea was ridiculous. They said that he made it up. Before doing this, Galileo was one of the most famous scientist in his country. Now he was on watch by the police to arrest him for changing the countries beliefs. When that occurred, Galileo was depressed and sad to know that know one believed him. After a couple of years, he came back with some evidence, concrete evidence, showing the exact paths of each planet. This was Galileo's corrected mistake from last time; when he came to the church and explained, he was immediately arrested. This was because the church probably knew that Galileo was right, and he would persuade a lot of people to stop going to the church. This would probably make their country into many different religions. This makes the country very unorganized. I also think that the church would lose some money if people stopped coming there. As a result, Galileo was arrested for the rest of his life.
Thomas Edison had some failures too. His most famous invention is making the light bulb. This was probably his most popular and used invention today. Although, in order to make it, he had to go through a long process of errors. It took him a very long time to make it with many failed light bulbs, but every time he failed, he would look at his mistake and try to not do it a second time. After trying again and again, he came to a point where all his error were gone because he corrected them each time he did it. This caused him to succeed in making a working light bulb. That is why Thomas Edison's famous quotes states"I have not failed 1000 times. I have just found a thousand ways not to do it".
Bibliography
"Albert Einstein." Bio. A&E Television Networks, 2015. Web. 31 May 2015.
· "Bach vs Beethoven." - Difference and Comparison. Web. 31 May 2015.
· "Bill Gates." Bio. A&E Television Networks, 2015. Web. 31 May 2015.
· "Galileo." Bio. A&E Television Networks, 2015. Web. 31 May 2015.
· "Steve Jobs." Bio. A&E Television Networks, 2015. Web. 31 May 2015.
· "Thomas Edison." Bio. A&E Television Networks, 2015. Web. 31 May 2015.