Seek to Misconstrue + a
Failure: The Blog 
February 2012
January 2012
- Offensive Advertising, Increased Sales?
- I Sold Out For Millions, Then Worked At McDonald's
- Steve Jobs on Failure
- The Famous Western Failure
- Thank Goodness for Drug Addicts
December 2011
- It's a Wonderful Failure
- Stadium Destroyed, Reborn
- Failure to Trust the Astronauts
- Failure and the Baggy Pants Tradition
- Failure at The Happiest Place on Earth
- Saving What Was Lost
- FailureBank: A Social Learning Utility
November 2011
- A Thanksgiving Failure
- Harriet Tubman's Clever Lie
- The Failures of Lemieux
- Failed to Return a Text
- Admitting Failure
- A Leaders Job: Support Failure
October 2011
- [VIDEO] Mistakes with Tasty Dum Dums
- Failure and the Chocolate Chip Cookie
- Failure Goes Digital
- Using AIDS to Fight Cancer
- Victory Despite Obstacles
September 2011
Popular Music
Trivia question: What was the first piece of instrumental sheet music to sell over one million copies? You might be surprised to learn it’s a song by someone that most would probably expect to fail.
The ditty is called Maple Leaf Rag, and it was released in 1899 by Scott Joplin. Here’s the piece (direct MP3 download) which you will certainly recognize:
Joplin’s life story would have made a great piece for Failure: The Secret to Success. Nobody knows exactly when he was born. Joplin was an African-American who grew up in the rural South, as part of the first post-slavery generation. His family was poor, and his love of music frustrated Joplin’s father—who wanted him to pursue a more practical career. Before the boy had reached puberty, Giles Joplin abandoned his wife and six children. This departure was partially out of disapproval for the mother’s support of Scott Joplin’s interest in music.
There are plenty more stories of Joplin’s struggles. That song, Maple Leaf Rag, was rejected outright by two publishers before finally being accepted by John Stark. The sheet music didn’t do well at first either, selling only 400 copies in the first year. It took ten years for it to pass the one million mark.
Joplin also attempted to produce an opera called A Guest of Honor. He hired thirty people and organized a tour across the midwest. But shortly after the production launched, someone affiliated with the theater company stole the box office proceeds. This practically destroyed their cashflow, and Joplin had to cancel the tour because he couldn’t make payroll.
Despite these failures, Scott Joplin did practically invent a whole new genre of music. He is an essential part of American history and an important hero to African-Americans. Again, the moral of the story is that failure is key to success. We must struggle to know how far we’ve come. We must experience loss to know triumph.
