Somebody once asked Winston Churchill what most prepared him to risk political suicide by speaking out against Hitler during the years of appeasement in the mid–1930s, then into lead against Nazi Germany. Churchill said it was the time he had to repeat a grade in elementary school.
“You mean you failed a year in grade school?” he was asked.
“I never failed anything in my life. I was given a second opportunity to get it right.” –John Ortberg, If You Want to Walk on Water, You’ve Got to Get Out of the Boat, (Zondervan, Grand Rapids, MI, 2001) pg. 22-23.
Also attributed to: John Ortberg
The point
Winston Churchill reinterprets repeating a grade in elementary school as a second opportunity to get it right, which prepared him for his leadership against Nazi Germany.