Famously Successful People Who Failed at First

                    

    But They Did Not Give Up "Ever tried. Ever failed.No  matter             

Not everyone who’s on top today got there with success after success. More often than not, those who history best remembers were faced with numerous obstacles that forced them to work harder and show more determination than others. Next time you’re feeling down about your failures in college or in a career, keep these fifty famous people in mind and remind yourself that sometimes failure is just the first step towards success.

Try Again. Fail again. Fail better." ~ Samuel Beckett

             
       


As a young man, Abraham Lincoln went to war a captain and returned a private. Afterwards, he was a failure as a businessman. As a lawyer in Springfield,he was too impractical and temperamental to be a success. He turned to politics and was defeated in his first try for the     

legislature, again defeated in his attempt to be

nominated for the congress, defeated in his application to be commissioner of the General LandOffice, defeated in the senatorial election of 1854, defeated in his efforts for the vice-presidency in 1856, and in the senatorial election of 1858. At that time, he wrote in a letter to a friend, "I am now the most miserable man living.If what I feel were equally distributed to whole human family, there would not be one cheerful face on the earth."

             Winston Churchill failed sixth grade. He was subsequently defeated in every election for public office until he became Prime Minister at the age of 62.He later wrote,"Never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never -in nothing, great or small, large or petty - never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense Never, Never, Never, Never give up (his capitals, mind you) 

Socrates was called "an immoral 

corrupter of youth" and continued to

corrupt even after a sentence of death

was imposed on him. He drank the 

hemlock and died corrupting.

              

Sigmund Freudwas booed from the podium when he first presented his ideas to the scientific community of Europe. He returned to his office and kept on writing.               

 

    

Robert Sternberg received a C in his first college introductory-psychology class. His teacher commented that"there was a famous Sternberg in psychology and it was obvious there would not be another." Three years later Sternberg graduated with honors from Stanford University with exceptional distinction in psychology, summa cum laude, and Phi Beta Kappa. In 2002, he became President of the American Psychological Association. 

  

  Charles Darwin gave up a medical career and was told by his father, "You care for nothing but shooting, dogs and rat catching." In his autobiography, Darwin wrote, "I was considered by all my masters and my father, a very ordinary boy, rather below the common standard of intellect." Clearly, he evolved. 

Thomas Edison's teachers said he was "too stupid to learn anything." He was fired from his first two jobs for being "non-productive." As an inventor, Edison made 1,000unsuccessful attempts at inventing the light bulb. When a reporter asked, "How did it feel to fail 1,000 times?" Edison replied, "I didn’t fail 1,000 times. The light bulb was an invention with 1,000 steps.""Our greatest glory is not in never falling but in rising every time we fall." ~ Confucius 

Albert Einstein did not speak until he was 4-years-old and did not read until he was 7. His parents thought he was "sub-normal," and one of his teachers described him as "mentally slow, unsociable, and adrift forever in foolish dreams." He was expelled from school and was refused admittance to the Zurich Polytechnic School. He did eventually learn to speak and read. Even to do a little math.

Louis Pasteur was only a mediocre pupil inundergraduate studies and ranked 15th out of 22 students in chemistry.

            

  Henry Ford failed and went broke five times before he succeeded. R. H. Macy failed seven times before his store in New York City caught on.

                 F. W. Woolworth was not allowed to wait on customers when he worked in a dry goods store because, his boss said, "he didn't have enough sense."

           

  John Garcia, who eventually was honored for his fundamental psychological discoveries, was once told by a reviewer of his often-rejected manuscripts that one is no more likely to find the phenomenon he discovered than to find bird droppings in a cuckoo clock. (sort of a cute critique actually)

Rocket scientist  Robert Goddard found

his ideas bitterly rejected by his scientific

peers on the grounds that rocket propulsion would not work in the rarefied atmosphere of outer space.

                 

Daniel Boone was once asked by a reporter if he had ever been lost in the wilderness. Boone thought for a moment and replied, "No, but I was once bewildered for about three days." 

"Only those who dare to fail greatly can achieve greatly." ~ Robert F. Kennedy 

          

             

             

          

     Michael Jordanwas each cut from his  high school basketball teams. Jordan once observed, "I've failed over and over again in my life. That is why I succeed."

 Most people wouldn’t believe that a man often lauded as the best basketball player of all time was actually cut from his high school basketball team. Luckily, Jordan didn't let this setback stop him from playing the game and he has stated, “I have missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I have lost almost 300 games. On 26 occasions I have been entrusted to take the game winning shot, and I missed. I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.” 

                   

                

  

Babe Ruth is famous for his past home run record, but for decades he also held the record for strikeouts. He hit 714 home runs and struck out 1,330 times in his career (about which he said, "Every strike brings me closer to the next home  run."). And didn't Mark McGwire break that strikeout record? (John Wooden once explained that winners make the most errors.)

Stan Smith was rejected as a                       

ball boy for a Davis Cup tennis match because he was "too awkward and clumsy." He went on to clumsily win Wimbledon 

and the U. S. Open. And eight Davis Cups.

          

                 Tom Landry, Chuck Noll, Bill Walsh, and Jimmy Johnson accounted for 11 of the 19 Super Bowl victories from 1974 to 1993. They also share the distinction of having the worst records of first-season head coaches in NFL history - they didn't win a single game. Johnny Unitas's first pass in the NFL was intercepted and returned for a touchdown.

                  

               Joe Montana's first pass was also intercepted. And while we're on quarterbacks, during his first season Troy Aikman threw twice as many interceptions (18) as touchdowns (9) . . . oh, and he didn't win a single game. You think there's a lesson here?   

                   After Carl Lewis won the gold medal for the long jump in the 1996 Olympic games, he was asked to what he attributed his longevity, having competed for almost 20 years. He said, "Remembering that you have both wins and losses along the way. I don't take either one too seriously."

         "Our achievements speak for themselves. What we have to keep track of are our failures, discouragements, and doubts. We tend to forget the past difficulties, the many false starts, and the painful groping. We see our past achievements as the end result of a clean forward thrust, and our present difficulties as signs of decline and decay." ~ Eric Hoffer 

                                

 Walt Disney was fired by a newspaper editor because "he lacked imagination and had no good ideas." He went bankrupt several times before he built Disneyland. In fact, the proposed park was rejected by the city of Anaheim on the grounds that it would only attract riffraff. 

                                  

Charles Schultz had every cartoon he submitted rejected by his high school yearbook staff. Oh, and Walt Disney wouldn't hire him.

                       

After Fred Astaire's first screen test, the memo from the testing director of MGM, dated 1933, read, "Can't act. Can't sing. Slightly bald. Can dance a little." He kept that memo over the fire place in his Beverly Hills home. Astaire once observed that "when you're experimenting, you have to try so many things before you choose what you want, that you may go days getting nothing but exhaustion." And here is the reward for perseverance: "The higher up you go, the more mistakes you are allowed. Right at the top, if you make enough of them, it's considered to be your style."

                                                         

       The first time Jerry Seinfeldwalked on-stage at a comedy club as a professional comic, he looked out at the audience, froze, and forgot the English language. He stumbled through "a minute-and a half" of material and was jeered offstage. He returned the following night and closed his set to wild applause. 

                         

     

  At the age of 21, French acting legend Jeanne Moreau was told by a casting director that her head was too crooked, she wasn't beautiful enough, and she wasn't photogenic enough to make it in films. She took a deep breath and said to herself, "Alright, then, I guess I will have to make it my own way." After making nearly 100 films her own way, in 1997 she received the European Film Academy Lifetime Achievement Award.

  

              "Flops are a part of life's menu and I've never been a girl to miss out on any of the courses." ~ Rosalind Russell                            
             

Charlie Chaplin was initially rejected by Hollywood studio chiefs because his pantomime was considered "nonsense." 

              

               .

               

                 

                    

Beethoven handled the violin awkwardly and preferred playing his own compositions instead of improving his technique. His teacher called him "hopeless as a composer." And, of course, you know that he wrote five of his greatest symphonies while completely deaf.

             

 Van Gogh sold only one painting during his life. And this to the sister of one of his friends for 400 francs (approximately $50). This didn't stop him from completing over 800 paintings.

            .

                    

       

                   


"Little minds are tamed and subdued by misfortune; but great minds rise above them." Washington                        

                

  Irving Leo Tolstoy flunked out of college. He was described as both "unable and unwilling to learn." No doubt a slow developer.

             

            

                   

 I bet you didn't know that John Milton wrote Paradise Lost 16 years after losing his eyesight 

              

                       .

                 

J. K. Rowling: Rowling may be rolling in a lot of Harry Potter dough today, but before she published the series of novels she was nearly penniless, severely depressed, divorced, trying to raise a child on her own while attending school and writing a novel. Rowling went from depending on welfare to survive to being one of the richest women in the world in a span of only five years through her hard work and determination.

                 

Oprah Winfrey: Most people know Oprah as one of the most iconic faces on TV as well as one of the richest and most successful women in the world. Oprah faced a hard road to get to that position, however, enduring a rough and often abusive childhood as well as numerous career setbacks including being fired from her job as a television reporter because she was “unfit for tv"

             

Stephen King: The first book by this author, the iconic thriller Carrie, received 30 rejections, finally causing King to give up and throw it in the trash. His wife fished it out and encouraged him to resubmit it, and the rest is history, with King now having hundreds of books published the distinction of being one of the best-selling authors of all time. 

                        

 The Beatles: Few people can deny the lasting power of this super group, still popular with listeners around the world today. Yet when they were just starting out, a recording company told them no. The were told “we don’t like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out,” two things the rest of the world couldn’t have disagreed with more. 

                       

                     

 Bill Gates: Gates didn’t seem like a shoe-in for success after dropping out of Harvard and starting a failed first business with Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen called Traf-O-Data. While this early idea didn’t work, Gates’ later work did, creating the global empire that is Microsoft.

      The common sense point here is simple. Successful people commit to taking personal responsibility for their career success. They set high goals and do whatever it takes to achieve them. They also react positively to the people and events in their lives – especially the negative people and events.

         In this post, I told the stories of some  well known people who ended up being wildly successful and well known. Let them be an example for you the next time you feel like giving up. That’s my take on career success and not giving up. What’s yours? Do you have any people to add to this list? If so, please leave a comment sharing your thoughts with us. As always, thanks for reading.

          

          Last but not least ......               

"No matter how hard you work for success, if your thought is saturated with the fear of failure, it will kill your efforts, neutralize your endeavors and make success impossible." ~ Baudjuin

Some of my upload on youtube

'You've got to find what you love,' Steve Jobs

This is a prepared text of the Commencement address delivered by Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computer and of Pixar Animation Studios, on June 12, 2005.

Video of the Commencement address.

I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I've ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That's it. No big deal. Just three stories.

The first story is about connecting the dots.

I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out?

It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: "We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?" They said: "Of course." My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college.

And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents' savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn't see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn't interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.

It wasn't all romantic. I didn't have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends' rooms, I returned coke bottles for the 5¢ deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example:

Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn't have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can't capture, and I found it fascinating.

None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, it's likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later.

Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.

My second story is about love and loss.

I was lucky — I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4000 employees. We had just released our finest creation — the Macintosh — a year earlier, and I had just turned 30. And then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him. So at 30 I was out. And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating.

I really didn't know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down - that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure, and I even thought about running away from the valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me — I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over.

I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.

During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the worlds first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I returned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple's current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.

I'm pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn't been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith. I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don't settle.

My third story is about death.

When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: "If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn't even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor's code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you'd have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.

I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I'm fine now.

This was the closest I've been to facing death, and I hope it's the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept:

No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960's, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.

Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish." It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

Thank you all very much.

Happy Vijaya Dashami

आयू द्रोणसुते श्रीयो दशरथे शत्रुक्षयं राघवे ।
ऐश्वर्यं नहुषे गतिश्च पवने मानञ्च दुर्‍योधने ।
दानं सूर्यसुते बलं हलधरे सत्यञ्च कुन्तीसुते ।

विज्ञानं विदुरे भवन्तु भवतां कीर्तिश्च नारायणे ॥

दशैं
हट्यो सारा हिलो मैलो
हरायो पानीको वर्षा
भवानीको भयो पूजा
चल्यो आनन्दको वर्षा

जता जाउ उतै भन्छन्
दशैं आयो दशैं आयो
यही आनन्द चर्चाले
सबै संकष्ट बिर्सायो

ठूला साना सबैलाइ
दशैं अत्यन्त राम्रो छ
चलेका चाडमा ज्यादै
यही उत्कृष्ट हाम्रो छ

सबै अत्यन्त आनन्दी
सबै छन् पिङमा दंग
सबैको देखिंदै आयो
उज्यालो चेहरा रंग

–लेखनाथ पौड्याल

Ghatsthapana

Today is Ghatasthapana the first day of Navratra , which literally means pot establishing. On this day the kalash, (holy water vessel) symbolising Goddess Durga often with her image embossed on the side is placed in the prayer room. The kalash is filled with holy water and covered with cowdung on to which seeds are sown. A small rectangular sand block is made and the kalash is put in the centre. The surrounding bed of sand is also seeded with grains.

The Ghatasthapana ritual is performed at a certain auspicious moment determined by the pundits. At that particular moment the priest intones a welcome, requesting goddess Durga to bless the vessel with Her presence.  There is a tradition of sowing barley seeds during the Durga Puja - Navratri period. In this a small bed of mud is prepared in a little container and barley seeds are sown in it. This is placed in the Puja room and cared for during the Navratri period. At the end of  Navratri the shoots reach a height of 3-5 inches. These are pulled out and given to devotees as form of blessings, with tikas on bijaya dashami last day of Navaratri.

दशैं आयो

दशैं नेपालीहरू र विशेषत: नेपाली हिन्दूहरूको सबैभन्दा ठूलो पर्व हो । नेपाली हिन्दू पात्रो अनुसार आश्विन शुक्ल प्रतिपदादेखि दशमीसम्म १० दिन पूजापाठ, व्रत र उत्सवकासाथ मनाइने चाड भएको हुनाले यसलाई दशैं वा 'विजया दशमी' का नामले पनि चिनिन्छ । हिन्दू चान्द्र मासिक पञ्चाङ्ग गणनाको तिथि अनुसार पर्ने भएकाले नेपाली चाडहरू निश्चित गते र तारिखमा नपर्ने हुनाले दशैं पनि अङ्ग्रेजी वा ग्रेगरियन क्यालेण्डर अनुसार सेप्टेम्बर महिनाको अन्त्यदेखि अक्टोबर महिनाको मध्य बीचमा पर्छ। दशैं आश्विन शुक्ल प्रतिपदाका दिनदेखि शुरू हुन्छ र यो पहिलो दिनलाई घटस्थापना भनिन्छ । दशैं प्रतिपदा घटस्थापनादेखि पूर्णिमा (कोजाग्रत)सम्म १५ दिन को हुने भएता पनि पहिलो ९ दिन लाई नवरात्रि र दशौं दिन लाई दशमी वा दशैं भनिन्छ| यो तिथिमा माता दुर्गाले महिषासुर नामक दैत्यलाई तथा भगवान श्री रामचन्द्रले रावणलाई वध गरेर मानवजातिको कल्याण गरेको भन्ने किंवदन्ती छ। प्रतिपदा (घटस्थापना), सप्तमी (फूलपाती), महाअष्टमी, (कालरात्री), महानवमी,विजयादशमी,र पूर्णिमा(कोजाग्रत) दशैंका प्रमुख तिथिहरु हुन्

घटस्थापना

आश्विन शुक्ल पक्ष प्रतिपदाको दिनलाई घटस्थापना भनिन्छ । यसै दिनदेखि नवरात्रि आरम्भ हुन्छ । यस दिन जमरा राखिन्छ, अर्को यस दिन घट कलशको स्थापना गरी देवी-देवतालाई आवाहन गरिन्छ । यस दिन झिसमिसे बिहानीमै आत्मशुद्धि पश्चात् नदी, खोला, बगर वा आफूलाई पायक पर्ने ठाउँमा गई चोखो बालुवा अथवा पञ्चमाटो ल्याई दशैं घर वा पूजाकोठामा राखी जमरा उमार्न जौ अथवा गाउघरमा चलिआएको अन्न छरिन्छ । जौ अथवा अन्नलाई वैदिक यज्ञको लागि अत्यावश्यक वस्तु मानिन्छ । माता भगवतीलाई मन पर्ने वनस्पतिमा जमरा पनि एक भएकोले भगवतीलाई खुसी पार्नको लागि जमरा उमार्ने गरिएको हो । त्यस स्थानको नजिकै माटोको विशुद्ध जलपूर्ण घडा (कलश)को वरिपरि नौवटा देवीको स्वरूपको प्रतिमूर्ति मानी गाईको गोबरले नौवटा देवीको वेदी बनाई लेपन गरिन्छ र घडाको वरिपरि जौ पनि गाडिन्छ । अनि जलपूर्ण कलशमा पञ्चपल्लवको पात चढाई अनन्त शक्तिस्वरूपा महाकाली (संहार), महालक्ष्मी(सुरक्षा) र महासरस्वती (सृष्टि) को पञ्चोपचारले पूजा-आजा गरिन्छ । ब्रह्मवैवर्त पुराण अनुसार वर्णन गरिएका नव दिग्दुर्गाहरू यी हुन् : प्रकति-पूर्व, चण्डिका-आग्नेय, भद्रकाली-दक्षिण, सर्वमङ्गला-वायव्य, वैष्णवी- उत्तर, शिवप्रिया-ईशान, जगदम्बिका- जल, थल र आकाश । शैलपुत्री , ब्रह्मचारिणी, चन्द्र घण्टा, कुष्माण्डा, स्कन्दमाता, कात्यायनी, कालरात्रि, महागौरी, सिद्धिदात्री यी नामहरूले देवीको पूजा गरिन्छ। हाम्रो धर्म, संस्कृति अनुसार घट कलशमै सम्पूर्ण देवी-देवता सप्तसागर, सप्तद्वीप, सम्पूर्ण नदी एवं तीर्थहरू निहित छन्, जुन कुरा कालिका पुराण भन्ने ग्रन्थमा उल्लेख भएको छ । यसका अतिरिक्त घटकलश अष्टमङ्गलका शुभ चिन्हहरूद्वारा समाहित गरिएको पाइन्छ । आधारहरूको कारण उपर्युक्त दिन घट कलश स्थापना गरी त्यसमै सम्पूर्ण देवीदेवता, तीर्थ, पावनतम नदी नाला, सप्त सागर, सप्त द्वीप आदि सबैलाई समाहित गरी दशैं पूजाको थालनी गरिएको हो । यसै दिनदेखि नवमीसम्म प्रत्येक नेपालीहरूका घरघरमा र देवीका मन्दिरहरूमा पहिलो दिनकै बमोजिम भगवती दुर्गाको पूजा, आराधना र प्रार्थना गरिन्छ र शंख, डमरू, घण्टी आदि बजाइ दुर्गासप्तशती -चण्डी), स्त्रोत्र रत्नावली, कालिका स्तोत्र, दुर्गा कवच, श्रीमद्देवीभागवत् आदि पाठ पनि पढिन्छ । पूजा गरिसकिएपछि प्रत्येक दिन बलि चाहिँ अनिवार्य दिनुपर्ने कुरा शास्त्रीय विधानमा उल्लेख गरिएको छ । बलि दिइसकेपछि यस दिनको कार्य समापन गरिन्छ

प्रमुख पूजा र उत्सव

महासप्तमी

सातौं दिनलाई फूल पाती, आठौं दिनलाई महाअष्टमी, नवौं दिनलाई महानवमी एवं दशौं दिनलाई विजया दशमी भनिन्छ र यी दिनहरुको महत्व अधिक रहेको पाइन्छ । सप्तमी तिथिको दिन दशैंको लागि पूजा सामग्री स्वरूप फूलपाती आगममा प्रवेश गराउने कार्य हुन्छ । यस दिन सदर टुँडिखेलमा बढाइँ भएपछि फूलपातीस्वरूप केरा, दारिम, धान, हलेदो, माने, कर्चुर, बेल, अशोक र जयन्ती यी नौ प्रकारका पातहरूलाई पूजी प्रत्येकको नौका दरले दुर्गापूजा गरेको स्थानमा भित्र्याइन्छ । यी नौ पातमा क्रमशः ब्रह्माणी, रक्तचण्डिका, लक्ष्मी, दुर्गा, चामुण्डा, कालिका, शिवा, शोकहारिणी र कार्तिकी देवीलाई एक एक गरी आवाहन गरेर सोह्र सामग्रीले पूजिन्छ । अर्का यहाँनेर यस तथ्यलाई पनि सम्झनु आवश्यक छ कि इन्द्र, शिव, विष्णु एवं श्रीरामले वृत्तासुर, त्रिपुरासुर, मधुकैटभ तथा रावण वधको लागि क्रमैसँग नवरात्र व्रत गरेका थिए । यस दिन विशेष गरेर महासरस्वती तथा पुस्तक, कापी, कलम अनि मसीदानी आदिको पनि पूजा गरिन्छ । किसानहरू यस दिन खेतमा गई चन्दन, अक्षता र फूलले धानको पूजा गरी धानका बाला र बोट घरमा भित्र्याउँछन् । साथै यसै दिन गोरखा दरबारको दशैंघरबाट ल्याइएको फूलपाती राजधानी काठमाण्डौंको जमलमा ल्याई प्रोसेशन र बढाइँ साथ हनुमानढोका दरवारमा भित्र्याइन्छ ।

महाष्टमी

नवरात्रिको आठौं दिनमा महाकाली -भद्रकाली) को विशेष पूजा-आजा गरिन्छ । देवीभागवत् अनुसार प्राचीन कालमा दक्षप्रजापतिको यज्ञ नाश गर्ने ज्यादै शक्तिशाली भद्रकाली (करोडौं योनी-शक्ति)का साथ अष्टमीका दिन उत्पन्न भएको पूजा गर्ने चलन छ। पूजापश्चात् यी देवीलाई बोका, कुखुरा, हाँस, राँगो आदि बलि दिइन्छ । यी दिनहरूमा मानिसहरू आ-आफ्ना कुलदेवी, देवता र स्थानीय देवीदेवतालाई पूजी बलि दिन्छन् । शाकहरुले नरिवल, कुभिण्डो, केरा, घिरौँला, आदि फल अर्पण गर्दछन् । काठमाडौँको तलेजु भवानीको मन्दिर पनि यस दिन सर्वसाधारणको लागि खुल्ला रहन्छ । यसै दिन दशैंघर (हनुमानढोका)को मूल चोकमा तलेजु भवानीलाई ५४ राँगा र त्यत्ति नै बोका बलि अर्पण गरिन्छ । महाअष्टमी र महानवमी बीचको रातलाई कालरात्रि मानेर रातभरि गुप्तपूजा गरिन्छ । धेरैले यसै दिनदेखि खेतिमा प्रयोग हुने हतियारको पूजा गर्छन् र दशमीमा विसर्जन गर्छन्।

महानवमी

नवरात्रिको नवौ दिन विशेष गरी महालक्ष्मी देवीको पूजा-आजा गरिन्छ । यसै दिन बिहान कलपूर्जा, हातहतियारहरू तथा सवारीका साधनहरू आदिलाई बलि दिई विश्वकर्माको पूजा पनि सम्पन्न गरिन्छ । यस दिन अरू पूजाको अतिरिक्त विशेष गरी दुई वर्षदेखि दस वर्षसम्मका नवकन्याहरूको पनि पूजाआजा गरिन्छ ।

विजया दशमी

नवरात्रिको दशौ दिन लाई विजयादशमी पनि भनिन्छ| यस दिन मा भगवान रामचन्द्रले रावण माथि विजय प्राप्त गरेकाले यसलाई विजयादशमी भनिएको कथन छ| सोह्र सामग्रीले भगवती दुर्गा र अरू देवीहरू तथा देवताको पूजा गरी, नौ दिनसम्म गरेको पूजाको काममा कुनै त्रुटि भयो कि भनी त्यसलाई पूरा गर्न तामाको थालीमा चन्दनले अष्टदल लेखी त्यसका बीचमा माटाका देवीका तीन प्रतिमा वा राता अक्षताका तीन थुप्रा राखी बीचमा अपराजिता देवी, दाहिनेतिर जया देवी, देब्रेतिर विजया देवीको आवाहन र सोह्र सामग्रीले पूजा गरी यथाशक्ति हवन गरी जमरालाई पूजा गरी अनि भगवती दुर्गा, अन्य देवदेवीहरूलाई चढाई आरती र पुष्पाञ्जलि गरिन्छ । यति गर्नाले कसैले पनि आफु माथि दमन (विजय) गर्न सक्दैन भन्ने धार्मिक विश्वास छ । त्यसपछि निम्न मन्त्र पढ्दै चन्दन, अक्षता, फूल छर्कँदै माफी माग्दै दुर्गा भगवती र अन्य देवीदेवतालाई विसर्जन गरी उठाएर अन्यत्र राख्नुपर्दछः 'आवाहनं नजानामि नजानामि विर्जसनम् । पूजां चैव नजानामि क्षम्यतां परमेश्वरी । यसपछि देवीका मूर्तिहरू र नवपत्रिकालाई बाजा, गाजा या वैदिक मन्त्र पढी जलाशयमा लगी सेलाई त्यसपछि घडाका जलले अभिषेक गरी देवीलाई चढाएको रातो अनि सेतो वस्त्रको कपडालाई प्रसादको रूपमा घाँटीमा लगाइन्छ । अनि घरका मोलमान्छेले भगवतीको प्रसाद स्वरूप अवीर र दहीमा मुछेको चामलका टीका निधारमा, जमरा टाउकोमा लगाई दक्षिणा दिई आशीर्वाद दिन्छन् । अनि सपरिवार नातेदारकहाँ तथा मान्यवरकहाँ दशैंकोलागि तयार पारी राखिएको नयाँ लुगा लाई टीका लगाउन जान्छन् ।
टीका लाउँदा दिने आशिषः-
 आयू द्रोणसुते श्रीयो दशरथे शत्रुक्षयं राघवे ।
ऐश्वर्यं नहुषे गतिश्च पवने मानञ्च दुर्‍योधने ।
दानं सूर्यसुते बलं हलधरे सत्यञ्च कुन्तीसुते ।
विज्ञानं विदुरे भवन्तु भवतां कीर्तिश्च नारायणे ॥ 
आफ्नो घरमा टीका लगाउन आउनेको क्रम पनि उत्तिकै रहन्छ । अन्त्यमा यो टीका लगाउने काम पूणिर्मासम्म जारी रहन्छ र पूर्णिमादेखि एक पक्षको (पन्ध्र) दशैं चाडको अन्त्य हुन्छ ।