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Failure: The Blog  

August 2018

  • When This Executive Was Fired, He Took Charge
  • Obeying The Speed Limit Has Never Been More Fun
  • London Black Cabs Helped Uber Grow
  • Bette Graham Created A Product To Fix Her Mistakes
  • Flamin' Hot Cheetos Had An Interesting Start

July 2018

  • Fear This Instead Of Failure
  • Re-Releasing Songs Created Success
  • A CEO's Purposeful Mistake
  • The Tardy Student And The Unsolvable Problem
  • Fixing Potholes Through Graffiti

June 2018

  • A Surprising Mistake In The Oxford English Dictionary
  • US Army Embraces Mistakes
  • Blocking A Hymn
  • Eddie Shore Was Truly A Tough Guy
  • [Video] Elon Musk Didn't "Pivot" He Failed

May 2018

  • 8 Examples of Mental Toughness Part 2
  • Necessity Turned Accessory: Allen Iverson's Sleeve
  • This Doctor Has Continued To Fail
  • 8 Examples of Mental Toughness
  • MIT Accidentally Creates New Smelting Process

April 2018

  • Johnny Cash Quit Singing Lessons
  • Cruise Control Came Out of Frustration
  • Time Spent Gaming Pays Off In The Navy
  • Rock Around The Clock Was a Commercial Failure
  • Sigmund Freud Should Have Been Discouraged

March 2018

  • Superman Couldn't Fly
  • This School Shares Failures
  • Jim Croce's Parents Hoped He Would Fail

[More archives...]

« Man Takes Telemarketing Failure Into His Own Hands
Meredith Whitney’s Failure »

A Disabled Solider Uses His Failure For Success

October 8th, 2013 - by Alyssa Shea

A disability can prove to be a hurdle that many people can’t overcome. Not only did one disabled soldier leap over this hurdle, he paved the way for something extraordinary.

Matthew Fontaine Maury joined the US Navy in 1825 when he was only 19 years old. He began to study the seas and navigation aboard the USS Brandywine. But when a leg injury took him out of service and left him disabled, he decided to use his abilities to continue to serve from the shore. He began mapping data from shipping logs onto charts and found a pattern in winds, weather and currents that was previously unknown to the world.

Matthew Fontaine Maury failure
Photo © Flickr User cliff1066™

He published his book in 1855 titled The Physical Geography of the Sea. He then did something truly groundbreaking: he shipped his data to anyone who wanted it in return for contributions of data. It became a project that spanned the world which paved the way for the U.S. Naval Observatory and made Maury its first superintendent.

Having a disability doesn’t mean your success has to end. While it can cause many to lapse into depression and feelings of low self-worth, Maury proved that a disability doesn’t have to hold you back. Maury is proof you can use your feelings of failure and lead yourself to success!

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Related Posts

  1. The Success of Failure, via CNN
    We assume that successful people are those that make the smartest choices and the least mistakes. But a new CNN article about creativity points out that failure is the secret to success.

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