12 Famous People Who Failed Before Succeeding

This post is not what you may think it is. I actually have a pet peeve to share with you today. It's about proper editing.

I go in search of inspiration in the form of books, videos, movies, and blog entries during those times when I need a little boost/reminder to keep trying, keep moving forward. I find it really helpful sometimes.

Today, I Googled the term "success after failure" and came across this blog entry: 12 Famous People Who Failed Before Succeeding. Far from inspiring me, it actually annoyed me as many of these blogs do due to the lack of proper editing. I posted a comment on the blog recommending a couple of fixes ... a post which he or she ended up deleting rather than responding to with an intelligent answer.

Basically, I told this person that I know his or her heart is in the right place. The intention to inspire people was genuine. But when a blog post is filled with all kinds of obvious typos/errors, it loses much of its credibility with readers.

Spelling errors:

One of the errors was the spelling of Jim Carrey's name. It was spelled Carey. Really? My goodness, if you can't even spell a famous person's name properly--if you can't even show credible research in something as obvious and simple as that--than how do you expect people to take the rest of your research seriously? It makes me question how much of this blog is truth and how much is fiction when it is haphazardly thrown together in this way.

Word usage errors and typos:

In this blog entry, the writer talks about Jay Z's "debut album entitled, Reasonable Doubt," and I laughed out loud when I read that! Books, albums, and things in general are not "entitled" to anything. Only people can be "entitled." Books, albums, and things are "titled."

Not only did the author of this blog delete my recommendations, but he or she deleted the comment without correcting all the typos/errors in the post. That's a real shame. That comes across so unprofessional to me.

People, editing is so important. And if you think you can edit yourself, you're mistaken ... as this blog entry clearly proves! No one can edit themselves: not even John Grisham, not even Danielle Steel. You need a second set of eyes to catch these types of things. This is far more important to your credibility than you may think.

Maybe one of you can contact the author of this blog to let him or her know I provided some free exposure by posting it on this forum (you're welcome). Clearly, if I try making contact again, my own message will be ignored.