Other Mistakes Another company, Diamond Fields, was formed to look for diamonds, which were never found. The company's head ge- ologist had made a mistake. Yet, instead of finding diamonds, they struck one of the largest nickel deposits in the world. Their stock price soared upon the discovery. Today, although the name remains Diamond Fields, they make their money in nickel. Levi Strauss headed for the gold fields of California to strike it rich in mining. However, he was not a good miner, so he instead began sewing pants out of canvas for the miners The Magic of Mistakes 193 who were successful. Today, I think most of the world has heard of Levi's jeans. It is said that Thomas Edison would never have invented the light bulb if he had been an employee for the company he ultimately founded-General Electric. It is said that Edison failed over 10,000 times before finally inventing the light bulb. If he had been an employee of a major corporation, he would most likely have been fired for making so many mistakes. Christopher Columbus's big mistake was that he was look- ing for a trade route to China and accidentally bumped into America, the richest, mOst powerful country in the world. Street Smarts Versus School Smarts My rich dad was so very successful financially for many reasons. At the top of the list was his attitude towards mak- ing mistakes. Like most of us, he hated making them, yet he was not afraid of making them. He would take risks sim- ply to make a mistake. He would say, "When you come to the boundaries of what you know, it's time to make some mistakes." Several times, one of his businesses failed to get off the ground and he lost money. I have also seen him launch a new product only to have it be rejected by the marketplace. Yet each time he made a mistake, instead of being depressed, he often seemed happier, wiser, more determined, and even richer from the experience. He would say to his son and me, "Mistakes are how we learn. Every time I make a mistake, I al- ways learn something about myself, I learn something new, and I often meet new people I would never have met." In one of his failed ventures, a plumbing distribution com- pany, he met one of his future business partners. And from that failed plumbing business, they formed a friendship and partnership that went on to make tens of millions of dollars. He said, "If I had not taken the risk to form that business, I 194 Rich Dad's Guide to Investing would never have met Jerry. And meeting Jerry is one of the most important events in my life." My poor dad was an excellent student in school. He rarely made mistakes, which was why he had such high grades. The problem was that at age 50, he seemed to have made one of the biggest mistakes in his life and he could not re- cover from it. As I watched my real dad struggle financially and profes- sionally, my rich dad said, "To be successful in the real world of business, you have to be school smart as well as street smart.