She's the kind of girl who climbed the ladder of success wrong

Hear the sharp and witty words of Mae West, the bold star of stage and screen, who declared: “She’s the kind of girl who climbed the ladder of success wrong by wrong.” At first, this saying appears but a jest, a clever play on words; yet beneath its sparkle lies wisdom about the crooked, imperfect, and human journey toward greatness. For the ladder of life is seldom climbed smoothly, rung by rung, but often awkwardly, with missteps, mistakes, and paths that twist rather than rise straight.

When Mae West speaks of success, she strips it of its false glamour. Many imagine that success is a shining ladder with polished rungs, climbed with perfect balance and flawless grace. Yet in truth, most ascend wrong by wrong—through errors, failures, and choices that seem misguided at the time. The wit of her remark conceals a deeper truth: that imperfection is the true path of progress, and that even the crooked climb leads upward, if one refuses to stop.

This wisdom is reflected in history. Consider the tale of Thomas Edison, who sought to harness electricity in the form of the light bulb. He is said to have failed thousands of times, climbing not “right by right,” but “wrong by wrong.” Each mistake was a rung upon which he slipped, yet also a step that carried him higher, until at last he achieved illumination. His success was born not from perfection, but from persistence through error.

Mae West herself embodied this truth. Rising in a time when women on the stage were often ridiculed or silenced, she built her fame through boldness, scandal, and wit. Many judged her “wrongs”—her sharp tongue, her audacious plays, her defiance of censorship. Yet these very wrongs became her rungs, lifting her into stardom and carving her place in history. What others saw as missteps, she transformed into stepping-stones. Thus her own life gave birth to her saying, both jest and revelation.

The quote carries also a lesson in humility: do not imagine that success is pure or unsullied. Even those who seem to stand tall have stumbled many times. To climb wrong by wrong is to confess that failure is not shame, but process. The great souls are not those who never fell, but those who turned each fall into a new ascent.

O children of tomorrow, let this teaching be yours: do not despair when your steps seem crooked, when your plans falter, when others laugh at your mistakes. Every wrong step can still carry you upward, if you persist and learn. The ladder of life is not climbed in perfection but in perseverance. Even your missteps may one day be retold as the very means by which you rose.

Let your practice be this: embrace your errors, yet do not cling to them. Learn swiftly, laugh at yourself when you stumble, and keep climbing. Measure not your worth by the smoothness of your ascent, but by the strength with which you refuse to descend. For every wrong rung can still lift you higher, if your will remains unbroken.

So remember Mae West’s words: to climb the ladder wrong by wrong is still to climb. Success is not the absence of error, but the triumph of persistence. Walk boldly, stumble bravely, and let even your mistakes become rungs that carry you toward the heights you seek.