Thomas Edison Failed Many Times

Thomas Edison failed many times before successfully inventing the modern electric light bulb. He said, "If I find 10,000 ways something won't work, I haven't failed. I am not discouraged, because every wrong attempt discarded is another step forward." Reflect on an accomplishment you achieved in an unlikely way." love to sing. This fact has not brought me the joy one might expect from a much-loved hobby. In fact, my love of singing may be an ironic and cruel joke, because I am a horrible singer. Though less delusional than the rejected applicants one sees on American Idol, I am no better at singing than they are. Therefore, my love of singing has actually brought me some distress. Friends have requested that I please pipe down while singing in the car, and I was actually rejected from my middle school's choir, which I think was actually supposed to accept everyone. Even when faced with constant rejection, I still loved to sing. Giving voice to a song helped me clarify my emotions, made good times even better, and helped bring me comfort during times of trouble. However, it seemed that singing would be something that I had to keep private, since my singing did not bring joy to others, and actually caused most people discomfort.

A decided that I did not want to relegate one of the great joys in my life to a shameful secret, so I began to pursue ways to sing publicly.

The first thing I did was to ask my parents for voice lessons. Initially, they resisted. My father told me, in as loving a way as he could, that giving me voice lessons would be like tuning a piano that had no keys. We were not an affluent family, and he simply believed it would be a waste of money. My mother was not any more helpful, but did agree to drive me to my voice lessons if I paid for them myself. Therefore, I turned my efforts towards making money for my voice lessons, a difficult task for a thirteen-year-old. Lacking most skills, but having the physical strength and boundless energy of most teenage children, I turned my efforts toward mowing yards. Our neighborhood of middle-class homes was ripe with people on the verge of becoming elderly, who prided themselves on meticulously maintained yards but were no longer able to do so. It would have been embarrassing to them to call upon a professional lawn company for assistance, but paying the earnest young neighbor to help them out was socially acceptable for them, and profitable for me. Using each neighbor's lawn equipment, I earned $20 a yard, and was quickly mowing four yards a week, more than enough to cover my voice lessons.

My voice teacher was relentless. One of those naturally gifted people with incredible range and a natural ability for tones, she sang like an angel, but I found her less than angelic. She was able to correct my tone-deafness and get me to sing on-key after almost an entire year of work, but then she fired me as a student. She told me that I simply did not have the type of voice that would ever make it in a high school choir, and that I should focus on another hobby. Those words devastated me. I had spent months mowing lawns, earning money for her lessons, and I had done all of the silly exercises she prescribed. She had helped me gain a voice that was tolerable, but that still was not pleasurable for most people to hear. I decided to stop my voice lessons and to restrict my singing to the shower.