Time & Perspective Quote by Dean Kamen

Failure gets demoted from catastrophe to operating cost in Dean Kamen's framing, which is exactly how an inventor has to think to keep showing up. The line isn’t motivational wallpaper; it’s a blunt description of R&D economics. “Most of the time you will fail” isn’t humility, it’s a statistic. Prototyping, testing, regulatory hurdles, manufacturing constraints, fundraising fatigue: the default state is breakdown. Kamen’s intent is to normalize that reality so persistence stops feeling like personal heroism and starts looking like standard procedure.

The subtext is also a defense of obsession. When he pairs “hard work and sacrifice” with “occasional successes,” he’s quietly justifying the lopsided life that innovation often demands: late nights, burned capital, strained relationships, years spent chasing a design that refuses to cooperate. The quote grants permission to endure disproportionate effort because the payoff isn’t evenly distributed. It arrives in spikes. One working prototype, one breakthrough, one product that actually ships can bankroll the next decade of failures. That’s not romance; that’s a portfolio strategy.

Context matters: Kamen’s career sits at the intersection of engineering idealism and real-world friction, from medical devices to the Segway to big, messy infrastructure ambitions. He’s seen both hype and hard lessons. The “occasionally” is doing the honest work here, puncturing Silicon Valley’s fantasy that grit reliably converts to success. It doesn’t. But when it does, the impact can be concrete and outsized, which is why people keep building anyway.