The Failure 596
He did not start talking until he was three.
He was told by one of his high school teachers,
"You will never amount to anything."
He became a high school dropout.
He failed his first college entrance exams,
being deficient in botany, zoology and foreign
languages.
He had to study for an extra year to gain
admittance to college. And, once there,
"he cut lectures, read what he wanted,
tinkered in school labs, and incurred the
wrath of his teachers."
He was called "a lazy dog" by one of his
college professors.
He passed his final exams by cramming
and graduated from college. But, he
antagonized his professors so much so
that he was unable to obtain a university
teaching post.
He finally wound up as an examiner
for the patent office. While there,
he had time to think.
He submitted a paper to a scientific journal
that revolutionized the thinking of the scientific world.
His name...Albert Einstein.
(Written on March 3, 1979)