Reportedly, when Thomas Edison was asked how it felt to fail so many times in his quest to invent a reliable incandescent light bulb, he replied. "I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work."

So many capable people never succeed due to fear of failure. How many people have wanted a better job, more education, start a business, write a book or anything else that can improve their life. Or even something like, losing weight, quitting tobacco, alcohol or drugs or becoming physically fit. Sometimes the desire to change is there, but the fear of not accomplishing your goals keep you from ever getting started.

I have been there. Looking back on my life, I wonder how much more I could have accomplished if I hadn't been so worried about the risks or outcomes. One of my faults is that I'm a bit of a perfectionist. I have not started, or I have abandoned some projects because I didn't think the outcome would be just right. Edison had my type figured out when he said, "Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up."
One of the most important things that I have learned in life is to forget about my past failures. It's okay to learn from your mistakes, just don't dwell on them. It's better to move ahead and make more mistakes than to sit there and never get started. Or, as Edison pointed out, "Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time."
But, you can't try one more time if you never start in the first place. One surefire way to fail is to never get started. Newton's first law of motion states that an object at rest stays at rest, and an object in motion stays in motion. In order to get somewhere in life, you have to get moving. You will never get physically fit if you don't lace up your sneakers.

I don't know how many times I have thought about writing over the years. When I was in the Army, I took a college English course. We had to write a story at the end of the course. I don't remember the details, but I wrote a story about a giant man and his camel who were traveling through the ancient lands that would someday be Vermont. The man and his camel laid down to take a nap and you can still see the profile of the man's face where Mount Mansfield is, and the back of the camel where Camel's Hump is. The teacher was impressed and encouraged me to become a writer.

I used to think about writing, off and on over the years, but it seemed about impossible when I was working full-time. When I was delivering mail as a substitute mail carrier, I came up with the idea of writing a column with the name Rural Male, around five years before I ever submitted my first article to the Bridge Weekly. On a warm spring day in 2022, I opened some windows in my house to let in fresh air. A farmer was fertilizing a nearby field and instead of fresh air, the smell of fresh spread manure wafted through the windows. That brought back some distinct memories from my childhood about springtime in Vermont. I sat down and wrote my first story of Rural Male and the Bridge Weekly published it in the May 26, 2022 issue. You can read it in the archives on the Bridge Weekly website.
I'm in a whole new battle now and my main enemy is procrastination. I have been planning for quite some time to compile several of my stories into a book. Edison said, "All progress, all success, springs from thinking." I've done my thinking, now I've got to do some doing.

Ken Batten grew up on a small sheep farm in West Topsham VT. He was a logging contractor, soldier and rural mail carrier. He now lives in North Hyde Park VT with his wife Tina-Marie. You can contact Ken at kenbatvt@gmail.com or PO Box 5 N Hyde Park VT 05665

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