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Component Manufacturing dverti$er
Don’t Forget! You Saw it in the
Adverti$er
March 2019 #11236 Page #20
Success Through Failure
Ben Hershey 4Ward Consulting Group, LLC
“I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. Twenty-six times I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.” Michael Jordan
W
hile it can be debated who the best player in the NBA is or has been, for this Chicagoite, Michael Jordan is likely the best by far. But prior to his success, he committed to a tremendous amount of practice, and he admits he experienced a lot of failure too.
Many of you may know that I am related to the Hershey candy company. Milton Snavely Hershey was my great-great-grandfather’s cousin. And while today the Hershey Food Corporation is a multi-billion dollar success, prior to his success, Milton Hershey had to endure failure too. Milton was expected to help out on the family farm near Derry Township, PA, and he learned early the value of hard work and perseverance. Milton had left school and apprenticed for a local printer, but he was bored, and, after accidently dropping his hat in one of the machines, he was fired from his job. Instead, one of Milton’s aunts encouraged him to learn the candy-making business. Over the course of four years, Milton apprenticed with a confectioner in Lancaster, PA before stepping out on his own. But like Michael Jordan, success did not come immediately. Milton started a caramel-making business in New York City, but it failed after three years. Returning to Lancaster, he borrowed money again from his family to start Lancaster Caramel Company. Learning from trial and error with previous candy making, he finally perfected the caramels they produced. His first big success came when a man from England visited Lancaster, tasted Milton’s caramels, and placed an order large enough that Milton was able to pay back his family and expand the operation. Then, after visiting the Chicago World’s Columbian Exposition, Milton took an interest in the confection of chocolate he had seen there. In 1900, he sold the Lancaster Caramel Company and used the proceeds to start the Hershey Chocolate Company. By 1905, production had begun on the now famous Hershey Milk Chocolate Candy Bar and the Hershey Kiss (the chocolate kind, though my wife enjoys both). And the rest, as they say, is history! Many times, the 4Ward team will work with a company and find the group unwilling to try something new for fear of failing. I am not sure why the stigma of making a mistake in our job has caused us (as a society) to fear trying something new. As you can see from Michael Jordan and Milton Hershey, part of achieving success is persevering through failure. In fact, it is through our failure that we can really learn to find a solution or improve a process, etc.
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