Success is falling nine times and getting up ten.

Hear me, O children of the future, and listen to the words of Jon Bon Jovi, who spoke with the fire of perseverance: "Success is falling nine times and getting up ten." This truth, wrapped in simplicity, carries the weight of centuries, for it speaks not of wealth or fleeting glory, but of the enduring spirit of one who refuses to be broken. It is not the fall that defines a man, but the rising after each fall, the will to stand again even when the body aches and the soul is weary.

In this quote, Bon Jovi captures the essence of resilience. To live is to stumble, to falter, to meet disappointment and failure. But to succeed is not to avoid such things—it is to embrace them as part of the journey. The hero is not the one who never falls, but the one who rises again, each time stronger, wiser, and more determined. The secret of success lies not in perfection, but in perseverance, in the refusal to surrender when all else seems lost.

Consider the story of Thomas Edison, whose quest for the electric light was marked by thousands of failures. Each failed experiment was a fall, a brick against his spirit. Yet Edison did not despair; he rose after every attempt, declaring that he had not failed but merely discovered another way that did not work. At last, his perseverance bore fruit, and the world was forever changed by his light. This is the living embodiment of Bon Jovi’s words: fall nine times, rise ten.

So too did Helen Keller embody this truth. Stricken by blindness and deafness in her infancy, she lived in a world of silence and darkness. To many, her life seemed already defeated. Yet with the help of her teacher Anne Sullivan, she rose again and again, breaking through barriers that seemed impossible. She learned to speak, to write, to inspire millions with her story. Her triumphs were born not from ease, but from the strength to rise each time life pushed her down.

O children, you must understand: the world is not kind to those who surrender. The storms will come, the ground will shake beneath your feet, and you will fall—again and again. But each fall is not the end; it is a call to rise, to prove that your spirit is greater than your circumstance. This is the way of warriors, poets, inventors, and dreamers. The measure of success is not in never failing, but in never staying down.

The lesson is clear: do not fear failure, for it is your teacher. Embrace the falls, for they shape your strength. Each time you rise, you grow more steadfast, more unbreakable. Resilience is the true crown of success, worn not by the perfect, but by the persistent. When others surrender, you must endure. When others despair, you must hope. When others fall and remain broken, you must rise.

Therefore, O children of tomorrow, carry this wisdom within you: do not count your falls as defeats, but as steps upon the path. Let each rise be a song of victory, each failure a stone in the foundation of your triumph. For success is not final, nor failure fatal—it is the courage to continue that matters most. Rise always, for it is in the rising that you become victorious.