LinkedIn - February 05, 2016 - Throughout history, the great originals have been the ones who failed the most, because they were the ones who tried the most. Most of Thomas Edison's 1,093 patents went nowhere; Picasso had to produce over 20,000 pieces of art to make a few masterpieces. We see the same trend with entrepreneurs. Before Uber, Travis Kalanick's first startup declared bankruptcy. Oprah Winfrey was fired from her job as a reporter. Steve Jobs flopped with the Apple Lisa and got forced out of his own company before making his triumphant return - and even after the iPod succeeded, he made a bad bet on the Segway personal transporter. And with all of Richard Branson's success in airlines, trains, music, and mobile, he has also presided over the failure of Virgin cola, cars, and wedding dresses. So take it from this group of elite failures. If at first you don't succeed, you'll know you're aiming high enough.