Perseverance is failing 19 times and succeeding the 20th.

Hear, O child of struggle and of hope, the wise words of Julie Andrews, who declared: “Perseverance is failing 19 times and succeeding the 20th.” This saying is simple in form, yet vast in meaning, for it reveals the essence of triumph. Success is not the absence of failure—it is born from failure, nurtured through it, and crowned beyond it. To persevere is to endure disappointment without surrender, to rise again though the weight of defeat presses heavily upon the soul.

To fail 19 times is to encounter the sting of defeat again and again. It is to pour one’s effort into the work, only to see it crumble. Yet those nineteen failures are not wasted—they are the schooling of destiny. Each one teaches, humbles, strengthens, and prepares the soul for the next attempt. Without them, the 20th success could never be reached. Andrews, who faced her own trials in her career and health, knew that perseverance is not about avoiding pain, but about walking through it until victory shines on the other side.

To succeed the 20th time is to prove that persistence outlasts defeat. The world remembers the victory, but it is the failures that built it. Think of Thomas Edison, who famously tested thousands of materials before creating a working light bulb. When mocked for his failures, he replied that he had not failed, but had found thousands of ways that would not work. It was his perseverance, his refusal to stop after the 19th, that gave the world the gift of light.

So too in the life of Abraham Lincoln, who lost election after election, faced repeated failures in business and politics, and endured personal tragedy. Yet he refused to surrender. When finally elected President, he carried within him the scars and lessons of all those defeats. And it was precisely that hard-earned resilience which enabled him to guide a nation through its bloodiest war. His life embodies the truth of Andrews’ words: failure after failure does not doom a man—quitting does.

The meaning is clear: perseverance is the refusal to let failure have the last word. Each fall is not the end, but the beginning of another attempt, each closer to the goal. Success may not come swiftly; it may demand nineteen defeats, or even ninety. Yet the one who persists, who rises again, will at last touch the prize. Failure breaks only those who stop; those who continue are forged into victors.

O listener, take this teaching into your own life. Do not despair when your first attempts crumble. Do not measure yourself by a single defeat or even many. Instead, measure yourself by your willingness to rise again, to try once more, to press forward when all seems lost. For the difference between those who dream and those who achieve is not talent alone, but the courage to keep going until success appears.

Therefore, let this be your creed: persevere. When you fall, rise; when you are struck down, stand again; when the door closes, knock upon another. Do not ask how many failures you will endure—accept that they are part of the road. For if you endure nineteen failures, the 20th attempt may carry your crown.

Thus the wisdom of Julie Andrews endures: “Perseverance is failing 19 times and succeeding the 20th.” Let it be a beacon in times of trial, a reminder that defeat is not final, and that victory belongs to those who refuse to surrender. For the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, but to those who rise again and again, until at last they prevail.