top of page

This Story About Einstein May Be Apocryphal But...

It still has a great lesson, particularly in today's world where the tendency is to build someone up and then knock them down.


Albert Einstein sticking his tongue out

One day the great man was giving a class to a hall full of students. Without saying a word, he started writing the 9 x table on a board, as follows:


9 x 1 = 9


9 x 2 = 18


He continued to do so all the way up to 9 x 9 without making a mistake. When he got to the next in the times table scale, he wrote:


9 x 10 = 91


The hall of students immediately erupted in laughter and general chaos because, extraordinarily, Einstein had made a mistake. This was Einstein! How could this genius get such a simple calculation wrong?


Einstein waited for everyone to be silent and then delivered a powerful lesson that no one soon forgot:


"Despite the fact that I analyzed nine problems correctly, no one congratulated me. But when I made one mistake, everyone started laughing. This means that even if a person is successful, society will notice his slightest mistake. And they'll like that. So don't let criticism destroy your dreams. The only person who never makes a mistake is someone who does nothing.”


It’s a reminder that even the most brilliant among us are not immune to mistakes.

bottom of page