Famous Failure

This week our town begins 12 days of craziness known as the Pony Express Days. This city celebration is all out fun from the Rodeo to the country music Concert 12 days later. There are contests and tributes and tournaments and carnivals and even helicopter rides. All to commemorate one of the most famous financial failures in US History...The Pony Express Trail.

Historically and innovatively the trail represents a dynamic change in the perception of America. Suddenly when mail could be sent across the country in a matter of days rather than weeks or months it didn't seem so vast. The wild West became connected to the sophisticated East and then the telegraph and railroad made travel and messaging so much easier. BUT financially the Pony Express Trail never prospered. Mail only traveled on the trail from April 1860 to November 1861, a mere 18 months. Not a lot of longevity for a business.

My point is that sometimes what is a failure in one aspect is a triumph in other ways. Something every writer can learn from and appreciate since we all know that our manuscripts and stories will be flawed. That doesn't mean that they won't be remembered for 150 years or more.