From: Naruto
Genre: Cartoons, Television, Anime
Who said it?: Naruto Uzumaki
The story behind the quote: This week’s quotes come from the manga/anime series Naruto. The story focuses on a young ninja named Naruto who has the spirit of the Nine-Tailed Fox sealed in him, making him an outcast. The manga/anime follows his and his friends’ adventures.
The quotes comes during the last part of the Chunin Exams. Naruto battles another ninja in training, Neji, who is supposed to be a natural and gifted student. During the climax, it appears that Neji has defeated Naruto after a long bout. However, it turns out Neji only downed one of Naruto’s Shadow Clones. Naruto uses this to his advantage and manages to perform a sneak attack, winning the bout.
Neji expresses that he should have expected this as the Shadow Clone technique is supposed to be Naruto’s specialty. Naruto then replies that he failed the exams several times because he could not execute the Shadow Clone technique properly before. However, he only became an expert at it through a lot of practice. After this reveal, he delivers the quote.
Geek wisdom: You are only a failure if you give up. You cannot better yourself if you just quit early on. Even masters have to have failed in the past. But they soldiered on and tried to improve; that’s the only reason why they became masters in their craft.
My Geek Wisdom 