Even the greatest minds and entrepreneurs strike out sometimes.

April 6, 2017 4 min read

Red Sox outfielder Ted Williams once said, "Baseball is the only field of endeavor where a man can succeed three times out of 10 and be considered a good performer."

With all due respect to Ted Williams, who is considered one of the 10 best baseball players ever and served in the military during World War II, he's dead wrong: Everyone fails, and usually more often than they succeed. Thomas Edison failed 10,000 times (though he might disagree), but he's gone down in history as the inventor of the lightbulb. It's well known that Abraham Lincoln lost several elections before running for president.

In retrospect, these struggles seem like small obstacles on the way to ultimate success. In the moment, though, their futures weren't so certain, and their failures prove they aren't infallible. For example, look at Elon Musk -- he might be the greatest entrepreneur alive, but he's still made his fair share of mistakes along the way.

Don't believe me? Check out the five times Elon Musk screwed up.

Related: 5 Creative Interview Questions to Ask Job Applicants, Approved by Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Reid Hoffman