There were many lessons to be learned during the early days of aviation history. The principles of lift, ground speed, angle of attack, and the like were not fully understood and had to be learned. It soon came to be understood that in the operation of an aircraft, one could not raise or lower the nose of the craft too fast when taking off or landing. Such a sudden raising or lowering of the nose would mean that there was not enough forward speed to keep the air flowing across the normal surface of the wings, from front to back. The result would be that one "stalled" the aircraft by creating a loss of lift.

In one of the early test flights Wilbur Wright took his place as pilot while his brother Orville held a wing to steady the plane during its run down the railroad track which was used to guide the plane. The restraining wire, which was holding the plane in place as the engine gained in power, was then released. The machine started forward quickly on the rail, leaving Orville behind. After leaving the track and after a run of 35 or 40 feet, the airplane took off. Wilbur pulled the aircraft's nose up into the air too suddenly, before it had gained enough forward speed. It climbed a few feet, "stalled", and settled to the ground at the foot of the hill after being in the air just 3 1/2 seconds.

Wilbur wrote of this testing:

"However the real trouble was an error in judgment, in turning up too suddenly after leaving the track, and as the machine had barely speed enough for support already, this slowed it down so much that before I could correct the error, the machine began to come down, though turned up at a big angle. Toward the end it began to speed up again but it was too late, and it struck the ground . . . "

In the testing of their first prototype, the Wright brothers had failed! They did not yet fully master the concept of lift, but they continued to learn about it by trial and error. After a few more attempts, they would go down in history as the successful inventors of the first "heavier than air" craft.

Is it not true that the combination of endurance, the acceptance of failure, and a willingness to learn from defeat are all part of success? We don't often reach our desired goals the first time. Rather, we go at it again, we accept the fact that we failed to reach our goal, and hopefully we learn enough to change the way we do it as we try again.

That must also be true when it comes to marriage, to raising children, to pursuing success in our employment, and to living our lives as Christians. We are not going to ultimately succeed unless we first of all endure. We must just never give up at changing the way we respond to pain, we carry out our work, we speak to people, we love people, we handle correction , we accept the failures of others, etc. Yes, we didn't do too well at it last time, but if we will not give up and just keep keeping at it, we will finally take off into the sky of success.

We must also be willing to accept our own failure. Accepting failure means that we don't let it stop us from trying again and that we don't blame our lack of success on something else or on others. We need to say to ourselves, "It is okay to fail and failure is part of any great success." There is no one who hasn't failed, but what makes the difference is whether we are willing to live with that reality in our own lives! If we can accept failure we will finally take off into the atmosphere of attainment.

We must also learn from our defeat. Rather than blaming and pointing, what is it that we can and we must learn. Where did we go wrong? How could we have done it differently? What would have made a difference? What part did we play in the problem? It is so easy to pass the blame to others and keep the cause of the failure on the doorstep of others. We will never learn if we will not examine our actions. If we can learn from our failures we will finally take off into the many airs of achievement.

Success = Endurance + Acceptance + Learning!