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How has a setback or failure set you up for later success?
Richard Leakey

Palaeoanthropologist and conservationist; head of the Kenya Wildlife Service

Recorded said elsewhere, not written here
So Cambridge rejected me. Quite rightly, although at the time I thought it was a little churlish. So, I had to do it without any university training. ... and I began to realize that there were probably a lot more of these things, and that if you find these things, you get a position in the ladder which you can’t get to unless you have either got an education or something else. So by finding important things, you immediately get into the game, which you’d been excluded from otherwise.

Academy of Achievement recorded interview, American Academy of Achievement, 21 June 2007 source ↗

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Jocelyn Bell Burnell Radio astronomer; discoverer of pulsars
My contemporaries were more upset about the Nobel than I was not to be recognised. One of them labelled it the 'No-Bell' prize! But it was fine by me. There's no Nobel Prize in astronomy and I was really proud that it was my stars that had convinced the prize committee that there was good physics in astrophysics.
Recorded Louise Walsh, University of Cambridge 'Journeys of Discovery' interview series, 1 January 2020 source ↗
Agnès Varda Film director, photographer and installation artist
I have never made any money from my films but I have won prizes and recognition. I have been on the margins forever. They all came to see me receive the award - there was Tom Hanks, Steven Spielberg and Richard Gere and so on. I was imagining what they would all be worth in money terms. You see I was never bankable, I could not bring any money ever to the table. I like the friendships and, yes, the admiration but I don’t want to make a big fuss about it. I will go on working as long as I am able!
Recorded Richard Mowe, Eye For Film feature interview, 12 February 2018 source ↗
Ben Bradlee Executive editor of The Washington Post, 1968–1991
We made one mistake in a story in which we said that — Woodward and Bernstein said — that there was a slush fund of $300,000 set up in the Committee to Re-elect the President, and it was controlled by Haldeman, and that one of the witnesses had testified to that slush fund to the grand jury investigating Watergate. ... It turned out that he hadn’t been asked, and that interested us a great deal, because if the prosecution wasn’t asking him those interesting questions, that suggested that there was a reason they weren’t, and the reason might be that they were trying to cover it up. Anyway, it took two days, and we got confirmation that there was, and in fact there was a slush fund of $750,000.
Recorded Academy of Achievement recorded interview, American Academy of Achievement, 1 May 2003 source ↗
Cal Ripken Jr. Baseball player; holder of the record for consecutive games played
No. I mean if you fail 70 percent of the time, you had a great year. You're dealing with failure seven out of ten times as a hitter.
Recorded Academy of Achievement interviewer, Academy of Achievement interview, Washington, D.C., 18 August 2020 source ↗

More from Richard Leakey

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Question What counsel would you give your twenty-year-old self — and what should they ignore? Time & hindsight
It’s very hard to give people advice, because you don’t know their personality. Personality is a big part of that. Everybody is faced with passing opportunities. Many people watch the opportunity come and watch it go. I say, if an opportunity comes and you have got the self-confidence, grab it. Ride it for a bit. If it’s not the right opportunity, do something else, but be positive about opportunities.
Recorded Academy of Achievement recorded interview, American Academy of Achievement, 21 June 2007 source ↗

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Richard Feynman, Norman Borlaug, Frederick Sanger, Jocelyn Bell Burnell, Peter Doherty, David MacMillan

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