Our parents once cautioned us that life is full of disappointments and this generally seems to hold true (even though we suspect they might have just been referring to us when they said it).  For example, we suffered a fair amount of disappointment after checking out a book called Ultimate Things from the library: we knew it wasn’t likely, but we were really hoping the book was just a listing of things that weretotally awesome.

One thing we’ve noticed about most disappointments though, is that they can be overcome. You’ve heard plenty of examples of this before (Michael Jordan being cut from his high school basketball team, Thomas Edison’s 1000 unsuccessful attempts at inventing the light-bulb, etc) and the common denominator to these stories seems to be a will to succeed in spite of setbacks.  Of course, this is a story that you’ve probably heard 100 times before, and we are not in the business of rehashing old ideas.  Instead, we thought we’d take a look at a few major disappointments, and see what lessons we can glean from them.

1) The Segway

The Expectation: No less an authority than Steve Jobs suggested that this thing had the potential to be as important an invention as the personal computer.  This, combined with rising gas prices had people pretty excited about the Segway, especially since no one had any idea what this magical new traveling contraption would look like.  The world waited with baited breath for something that, based on the hype, had to be at least as cool as a jet-pack.

Also, the top speed is a blistering 12.5 miles per hour.

The Lesson: Take a sober look at your strengths and weaknesses, and set realistic goals accordingly.  The Segway, at least by appearances, has carved out a nice little niche serving Security officers and people who are physically incapable (or unwilling) to walk or ride a bike.  This makes sense to us.  One would think that anybody who set out to build a machine that seats as many people as a bicycle, goes slightly slower than a bicycle, costs more than a bicycle, and neither requires (nor allows) the physical exertion of a bicycle would conclude that their product is going to be targeting a pretty specific subset of people: people who would use a bicycle except for the fact that they are unable (or unwilling) to ride bicycles.

Instead, however, the inventor of the Segway got it into his head that the Segway’s competition was the automobile.  We don’t know how much money got wasted trying to turn the Segway into something other than a niche product—perhaps it was a relatively small amount—but we do know that the Segway would be considered a wild success if its goal had been to capture the niche it so obviously is designed for.

2) The Russian Revolution

The Expectation: To say that life was bad for the average Russian under Czarist rule would be an understatement.  Imagine, then, the excitement the average Russian must have felt when that regime was toppled in favor of a system designed explicitly to redistribute wealth to the poor.

The Disappointment: Dissertations could be (and have been) written on the hardship faced by people in the Soviet Union, but, to keep it short: millions of citizens were slaughtered by the government, and the average Russian remained poor.

The Lesson: We could introduce the mildly-controversial argument that communism as a system is doomed to fail by nature, but that argument hardly helps you avoid your own setbacks (unless you’re planning a revolution).  Besides, why even bother with that debate when there’s an even easier scapegoat:

Whatever hopes the Russian people may have had for a Communist utopia went out the window when Stalin came to power.  Stalin’s vision for the Soviet Union (specifically the part about concentrating power centrally and alienating most Russians from political power) differed greatly from the ideals that spurred the revolution in the first place.  The lesson to be learned is that leadership and communication matter.  Any plan you hope to execute doesn’t just need a leader who can rally people around that plan—it needs a leader who understands the plan in the first place.

It also helps if the leader doesn’t plan to “purge” millions of his own people.

3) Ryan Leaf

The Expectation: A star quarterback at WSU, Ryan Leaf was considered by many experts to be a better prospect than draft-classmate Peyton Manning.  Drafted with the 2nd overall pick by the San Diego Chargers, Leaf was expected to be one of the premiere quarterbacks in the National Football League.

The Disappointment: A bit of a loose-cannon—Leaf famously snapped at hecklers, reporters, his own coach, and the teams general manager on seperate occasions—Leaf’s off the field troubles were worsened by a complete inability to be even serviceable as an NFL quarterback.  In his three seasons, Leaf completed less than half of his passes and threw just 14 touchdown passes against a whopping 36 interceptions.

The Lesson: Never rest on your laurels.  By all accounts, Ryan Leaf had more than enough talent to be a star in the NFL.  What Leaf lacked was a drive to succeed—even after his first disappointing season, Leaf famously skipped practices to play golf and pickup football games.  Competing in a league where everyplayer has an extremely high level of talent, Ryan Leaf was doomed to fail because he was not determined to succeed.

A secondary lesson to be gleaned from Ryan Leaf’s failure—if you’re in the position of hiring—is to look for hungry talent.  Leaf was given more than $11 million of his $31 million contract by the Chargers before he took his first snap, and he was already well-regarded as a great player.  In a lot of ways, Ryan Leaf had nothing to prove and no incentive to prove it: if he managed his money well, he could live comfortably for the rest of his life regardless of how well he played.  A key to avoiding disappointment is to target talent that still has something to prove.

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