Failure - The Key to Success

Let me give you a quick lesson on failure. If you are afraid of failure, that's all you will get. If you view failure as a negative thing, you will never succeed. If you think failure is the end of the line when things go wrong, well, you'll be right...for you. Failure is not an option. It is part of the process of becoming successful.

Every successful person you see has failed over and over and over again. The problem is, the part that is usually publicised are the successes. The failures, or the majority of them anyway, usually come in the building stages, before there is major attention on them. Once they hit the public scene they seem to be an "overnight" success, when typically they've had years of hard work, struggle and failure that led up to that.

Failure is not a negative thing unless you let it be that. Failure is how we "learn on the job". It's how we become better at what we do. The critical part is that when we do fail, we stop and reflect on it. Why did the failure happen? What will you do in the future to make sure it doesn't happen again? How are you going to let this be a positive thing and make you a better person and better at your business? Failure can actually be used as a springboard instead of putting you in a slump. The key is to have the right perspective on failure, and to view it as this tool for learning and growing instead of something to avoid at all costs.

And oh, by the way...if you're not failing, you're not trying hard enough. If you find yourself trying to rack your brain for the last time you failed, you need to get out there and fail more! If you're not failing your not putting yourself out there enough.

I hope this can put a fresh perspective on failure and help you view it in a healthy way. Don't avoid failure. Use it as a learning process and a springboard to better things. I'll end with this video of Michael Jordan, one of the greatest, if not the greatest basketball player of all time. Let's take a look at one of the most successful sports figures in the world and see what his take is on success and failure.