Monday Motivation

I homeschool a tremendously sensitive, perfectionist child. He does not take failure in his work well at all. Meltdowns are frequent, because failure happens in all phases of life. But bit by bit, he is learning that what he learned in his first try gives him a head start on his second. The first attempt at new knowledge or skill wasn't so much a failure as hands-on training. He'll do better on his second try. And his third, fourth, and fifth, if it comes to that.

Most of you know my story by now. Twenty-four years of submitting books to publishers without a bite. Who knows how many hundreds queries and manuscripts I sent out? I don't. All I know is that I would work through my list, and when I reached the end, I'd start over again. And I kept tweaking my books, improving them, never giving up on what I believed in. At the same time, I kept writing new material, applying the experience I'd gained from the last round of the 'game'. Until at long last, on the brink of giving up on a traditional publisher, someone said yes.

This is what I'm teaching my kid. Failure is not the end. It's just one step in a series of many towards success.