Seek to Misconstrue + a
Failure: The Blog 
February 2012
- Unfinished, But Inhabited
- The Success of Failure, via CNN
- Einstein Actually Had Excellent Grades
- The Physics of Discarded Paper
- The Power of Failing
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
Harriet Tubman’s Clever Lie
The famous escaped slave and abolitionist Harriet Tubman evaded capture many times. In many of those episodes, failure was the secret to her success.
According to one source:
She saw a former master on a train. Harriet grabbed a newspaper and pretended to read. The slave owner knew that Harriet Tubman couldn’t read, so ignored the black woman who was “reading” the newspaper. Luckily, Harriet held the newspaper right side up!
The story of this brave woman is one of breaking the rules. Beginning in 1849, she failed to comply with laws but did what she—and millions of others—thought was right. She escaped from slavery twice in that year, finally ending up in Pennsylvania. But this was not enough. For the next eleven years, she intentionally returned to the south to rescue other slaves. Again and again she acted as a criminal, but successfully brought over 70 people to freedom.
Failure is the secret to success. Harriet Tubman “failed” to accept the status quo, and even supported violent action to stop slavery. But for much of her life and to countless people today, her purposeful refusal to follow the rules is a true inspiration. Sometimes to do what is right we must do what others feel is wrong.
