Evil Knievel

Success is 99 percent failure. Remember that lesson from the other day? Well, Evil Knievel lived it.

Everyone has heard of this man. People alive in the 70's probably were exposed to the fanfare. People now would know of him through his son Robbie Knievel or by all the media that was inspired by his performances (ghost rider, a few episodes of The Simpsons, to name a few). I am not going to tell you his whole life story here. You can read about him on Wikipedia if you are interested in that. The thing I am interested in was how on earth he managed to still get back on that motorcycle after his brutal failures.

His first big break was probably also one of his most crushing defeats. He attempted to jump over the fountain at Ceaser's Palace in Las Vegas, Nevada. No one asked him to do this, he went to great lengths to trick the owners of Ceaser's Palace into letting him do it. When he crashed, he fell into a coma for 30 days. I would have learned my lesson. Evil didn't. He made plans for his next big jump while still in the hospital. He had many more successes and many more failures after that, including the jump and crash involving the Harley Davidson where he immediately vowed to the audience that he would never jump again. His visceral reaction from shell shock of crash told him not to do this anymore. That tells me that this guy isn't stupid. But he went back on his word and did many more jumps after that.

What did he get from this lifetime of resiliency? Well, he got a Guinness World Record for the most broken bones. He also got fame, earning a place for his motorcycle in the Smithsonian. He is an american icon. He achieved his own definition of success.

So there you go. Evil Knievel should be an inspiration to us all.