“Far too noisy, my dear Mozart. Far too many notes” (The Emperor Ferdinand after the first performance of The Marriage of Figaro).

“If Beethoven’s Seventh Symphany is not by some means abridged, it will soon fall into disuse” (Philip Hale, Boston music critic, 1837).

“Rembrandt is not be be compared in the painting of character with our extraordinarily gifted English artist Mr. Rippingille” (John Hunt (1775-1848)).

“Flight by machines heavier than air is unpractical and insignificant…utterlyimpossible” (Simon Newcomb (1835-1909)).

“We don’t like their sound. Groups of guitars are on their way out” (Decca Recording Company when turning down the Beatles in 1962).

“You will never amount to very much” (A Munich schoolmaster to Albert Einstein, aged 10).

And on and on it goes. The only thing we can be thankful for when it comes to blowing it is that nobody keeps a record of ours. Or do they? Or do we with others?

Tags: encouragement, failure