The Courage to Succeed

“If you’ve tried and failed, don’t feel bad. God forgives our failures as soon as we acknowledge them as failures – and that spares us from the self-deception of trying to see them as success. No one worth admiring ever succeeded without many failures on the way. The great poets wrote bad poems; the great artists painted undistinguished canvases; not every symphony by Mozart is a masterpiece. If you lack the courage to fail, then you lack the courage to succeed.”

Letters to the Next Generation: Reflections on Yom Kippur, Letter 6: Jewish Wisdom