Some variations on a theme around “If At First You Don’t Succeed.” Some humor for entrepreneurs spend a lot of time “not succeeding.”
If At First You Don’t Succeed
“‘Tis a lesson you should heed:
Try, try again.
If at first you don’t succeed,
Try, try again.”
William Edward Hickson (1803-1870)
Lyrics from the first verse of the song “Perseverance; Or Try Again,” printed in Hickson’s book The Singing Master (1836). As far as I can determine this is the root of the expressions that begin with, “If at first you don’t succeed.”
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“If at first you don’t succeed, try hard work.”
William Feather
I think sometimes we are afraid to try hard for fear of making the failure more obvious and perhaps more painful.
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“If at first you don’t succeed—try, try again. Don’t think of it as failure. Think of it as timed-release success.”
Robert Orben
This is a good perspective for bootstrappers to adopt.
“If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. Then quit. No use being a damn fool about it.”
W. C. Fields (1880–1946), newspaper interview, quoted in Drat! (1968)
Three tries is a good rule of thumb before you start varying your approach.
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“If at first you don’t succeed, you’ll get a lot of unsolicited advice.”
Charlotte Stevens in her 1960 yearbook quote
This reminded me of an old email signature by Tom Fallon, “Details as they accumulate like junk (E-)mail, suggestions from upper management, and free advice from the uninvolved.”
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“If at first you don’t succeed you’re running about average.”
M. H. Alderson
Don’t calibrate “how hard could it be?” from other people’s highlight reels. Have a plan for what happens when you don’t succeed. Which reminds me of a quote by Eric Berne, “The best way to tell a winner from a loser is this: a winner is someone who knows what he’ll do next if he loses, but doesn’t talk about it; a loser is one who doesn’t know what he’ll do if he loses, but talks about what he will do if he wins.”
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“If at first you don’t succeed, try reading the instructions!”
G. Harry Stine in “Rocket Trails,” American Modeler 58, no.6 (Sep 1962)
Quoted in “Dictionary of Modern Proverbs” Compiled by Charles Clay Doyle, Wolfgang Mieder, and Fred R. Shapiro who suggest it’s a riff on an older saying, “When all else fails, try reading the directions.”
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“Fall down seven times, stand up eight.”
Japanese proverb
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“If at first you don’t succeed, don’t try exactly the same thing again. You won’t succeed, again. Instead, have a think, evaluate, correct, modify and then try again. Creativity is an iterative process.”
Will Gompertz in Think Like an Artist (2015)
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“If at first you don’t succeed, before you try again, stop to figure out what you did wrong.”
Leo Rosten (1908-1997)
This is a more succinct version of the Gompertz quote and Rosten probably originated the “have a think / figure out” version.
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“If at first you don’t succeed skydiving is definitely not for you”
Steven Wright
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“If at first you do succeed don’t take any more chances.”
Kin Hubbard
Related Blog Posts
- 12 From Sydney J. Harris’ “Winners and Losers” For Entrepreneurs
- Eric Berne on Winners and Losers
- Things I Have Learned From My Children
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- Entrepreneurs Need Gumption To Succeed
- Starting Small Can Lead to A Big Success
- See What’s Missing: Careful Observation Key To Success
- Overnight Success
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- Impatience For Success Works Against Learning
- Successful Entrepreneurship Is Ongoing Self-Improvement