FAILURE
“Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever hope to achieve greatly.”
—Robert F. Kennedy, former United States Senator (D) NY
and former United States Attorney General.
From an early age, we are taught to fear failure. The truth is that failure is often a natural consequence of action and innovation. You need to work tirelessly, persist, pivot and persevere; but never fear failure.
“Failure can be the greatest thing in our lives.”—Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple, Inc.
You need to see each failure as a learning experience, analyze your failures, learn from them and make appropriate adjustments.Many of the most successful people in history have had to overcome multiple failures.
Michael Jordan was cut from his high school team.
Walt Disney was told he lacked imagination and was fired from the newspaper where he worked.
Thomas Edison is said to have failed ten thousand times before inventing the light bulb.
Oprah Winfrey was told that she was unfit for TV.
All these people have at least three things in common:they had the courage to reach for success, they failed, and they persevered until they achieved success.
Failure is an integral part of the learning process.
It gives us valuable feedback on what we need to work on next.If you’re not failing, you’re not trying, you’re not reaching and you’re not growing.
In everything you do, every time you have the courage to try something new, you will either succeed or you will fail. In each case, you will learn from the experience. Both add value to your life but failure is by far the better teacher.
It doesn’t matter how many times you fail. What matters is your dedication and commitment to success. See each failure as an opportunity to learn, make adjustments and keep trying. Failure is an important part of your foundational strength—strength that you can build upon.
Failure shows us our capacity for resilience, our power to overcome obstacles and our ability to endure. It evidences our core strength and that strength should be used as a source of pride and inspiration. The more we fail and persevere, the stronger we become.
“That which does not kill us makes us stronger.”
—Fredrick Wilhelm Nietzsche, German philosopher.
Use your failure to your advantage. Build upon the strength and the lessons that it provides.
