Do you really want to be Einstein that much? Then why don't you go practice your problems a bit more?

Listen, that guy had crap grades in school because he couldn't focus on what he was supposed to do. Sure, his thoughts were a little deeper, and probably majority of the time stupider as well, but that doesnt mean he was any better in the late 1800s. If he were given a toy, he probably would've wondered what kind of person had the idea for whatever that toy was.

Though I probably would've liked to hang around such a person. Anyway, people are different. Just do what you like doing, and make it your profession. Unless it's mopping floors. But again, do what you like.

And it generally doesnt help to compare someone in their... well, younger thirty to someone who's face or name is synonymous to genius. Probably not going to be much of a comparison to make. But there's no reason why you can't become as good as Einstein. He screwed up kindergarten, and that word comes from his own language! Not that that the language thing actually means anything.

I'm not sure where you heard that, but it is not true that he never made any mistakes.

He was a smart man and was an important person in the scientific community, but it's actually shame that people would rather reflect on the wonder of this one guy as a super human rather than learn about any of the hundreds of other contributors to science that are at least as important.

The best advice I can give you is if you remember the source of your information, make sure to be more critical of anything else you hear from that source and you will be better off.

he made plenty of mistakes, but he kept trying, so he's mostly remembered for his successes. for example he spent about ten years (1905-1915) developing general relativity. that was not smooth sailing I'll bet!

As smart as he was, remember he worked mostly in the first half of the 20th century. The general knowledge in the field of physics grows and progresses incredibly fast, so many widely-accepted theories are considered obsolete ten or twenty years later. Einstein worked with what he had, what humans were capable of knowing, and he did an incredible job with it. Even though some of his work has been disproven, his contribution to physics and to human knowledge is enormous, and we would be nowhere near where we are today without him.

He did make a lot of mistakes.  That is how we all learn.  

The story you saw showed all his published works.  Most people only publish their successes, not their mistakes.  

It took Einstein years to get his Theory of Relativity correct.  

Hummm, theoritical bloopers.  Probably not a best seller.

Wasn't there something about his belief in a static universe?  He called it his greatest blunder?

Frankly, if you consider yourself a physicist you should know the answer to this question already. I'm not a physicists and yet I know that Einstein was wrong on a number of thngs, most notably quantum mechanics. He lost a very public debate with Niels Bohr. If you are studying physics and don't know that, then I would seriously consider alternative subject matters.

Putting aside all the comments about the Cosmological Constant, or his rejection of quantum physics, think about what he actually DID.

He took roughly 10 years to come up with General Relativity.  How do you think he did that?  Do you think he woke up once a month with one more piece of the puzzle?  No, he thought about the problems day after day, searching for the answers.  Have you even done that?  You think of a possible solution, you test it in some way, and if it's wrong, you throw it out.  The test might be very simple ("no, that won't work"), or it might take months of brain numbing calculation to determine it's a wrong path.  THAT'S why it took him 10 years, not because he was infallible, but BECAUSE he made mistakes.  That's the only way to solve problems, not by being perfect.

Surely you've heard the old adage about Thomas Edison?  When a reporter was told by Edison that they had tried over 10,000 items before hitting upon the correct filament for the lightbulb, he asked him how it felt to be wrong that many times?  "Wrong?", said Edison, "we weren't wrong, we simply found the 10,000 things that DON'T work".

Einstein was a very great scientist and thinker, but more than that, he was very much a human being. Outside of his exceptional insights into the nature of the universe, his life was pretty much like anyone else's.

(".... By his own admission, he did not treat his two wife's well, as he had a long history of extramarital affairs.  He had many close and lasting friends, but the challenge of personal moral responsibility was often too much to bear. ....

... his first loves; his illegitimate daughter, Lieserl; his marriage to fellow physics student Mileva Maric, Lieserl's mother (It is believed that Einstein and Maric gave Lieserl up for adoption when she was but still very young).

There is some evidence that Einstein was now paying the price for not showing enough respect to his teach Weber, who might well have been writing behind Einstein's back to torpedo his applications.

Albert and Mileva finally divorced in 1919, and Albert married Elsa (his first cousin) shortly thereafter. .... Not all was domestic bliss, however. More than a few women were drawn to Einstein, and he indulged in a number of no-so-secret extramarital affairs.  Elsa, the realist, made her peace with Einstein's philandering, perhaps seeing this as the price of marriage to a famous man.

Second son, Edward, admitted for the first time to Burgholzli asylum in Burgholzli, Switzerland, for treatment of psychiatric problems.")

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There more, much more but these shortcomings were, in many ways, understandable given the extraordinary nature of the man. He was not a very good father or husband, and that was his greatest blunder, I think.  However, the legacy he left behind far out reaches these social errors.  He was after all, only human.
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Do not strive to be another Einstein, but use his achievments as a model for your own life.  You, have to be you. Not Einstein.

See: Albert Einstein: Physicist, Philosopher, Humanitarian
http://www.teach12.com/ttcx/CourseDescLong2.aspx?cid=8122

Also see: EINSTEIN: His Life and Universe
by Walter Isaacson
ISBN: 13-978-7432-6473-0

Have you heard of the quote, "Everyone makes mistakes; and eventually learn from it?" Well, that was Einstein. I think what you mean is..

1. He made mistakes, but since his brain is very functional, he learns from his mistakes real quick.

2. Not ALL physicists will ever be as smart as Einstein or Newton. The documentaries you saw are not his mistakes. They wouldn't want to put mistakes in his documentaries. Not to mention the fact that they had no technology so they used their brain 24/7 while the people today like you and me have computers to help our brains and not tire our brain so much like Einstein did.

The biggest mistake he made was the Cosmological Constant. And remember his quote he said over and over again? "God does not play dice." He struggled with Quantum Mechanics. That tells you something. Einstein struggled in a lot of fields, but he only focuses on well over a couple of fields.