MiThoughts on the subject of FAILURE

Do you want to be a success in your quest to help change the world? Welcome to the first day of the rest of your life! It's time we learn an essential key to success:

*FAILURE *

 

….Okay, okay, so I can tell that you are wondering: "What!!! Is this guy CRAZY!? How can you be successful by failure?"

 

Well, here are MY THOUGHTS on the subject….

 

All right, I know it may sound a little weird, but sometimes the truth is just really weird. No, seriously, it's true! Failure can be your best friend if you learn how to utilize it.

John Maxwell (THE guru on leadership), in his book Failing Forward, says that:

 

"You
are the only person who can really label what you do a failure."

 

So if you think you are a failure, you will be one. If you think that by failing you become a failure, you're wrong—DEAD WRONG!!! The whole theme in Failing Forward (a great book that everyone should read) can almost be summed up by saying:

If you aren't failing, then you aren't growing; if you want to stop failing, you are in for disappointment.

 

If you are still skeptical, consider this: Most successful businesspeople, the one who run the really big businesses, lose on average three companies before finally making it big. They know they secret to success, and that is failure. It's the world's greatest teacher!

 

Goodness knows I would know about that that…

…I remember the time when I was taking the USSF (U.S. Soccer Federation) Referee grade 8 certification test (the lower the grade, the higher the "rank")…I just KNEW I was going to pass that test! It was going to be a BREEZE! I had played soccer for about nine years already, so I already basically "knew everything" about soccer. (Keep in mind that this was my first time ever to attempt certification.)

The only problem is, what you have to know in soccer and what you have to know as a referee can be VERY DIFFERENT at times…you have to know a considerable bit more about certain concepts, and you have to remember all the little rules, technicalities, and stipulations and all that good stuff.

WELL, lets just say I didn't study quite as much as I should have for the test. you had to make at least a 74 to pass…………………………and…………………well………………….

…. ….

………………………………..I only got a 64.

 

Oh it was embarrassing alright! I was only ONE POINT AWAY from getting the lowest in the class! (I was SECOND lowest.)

So needless to say I had to take the test a little later, and I STUDIED THE BOOK TO PIECES! I passed that time, and passed every other time since then. Let me tell you, that was a lesson that failure taught me VERY WELL!

 

Naturally I have failed many other times before and since that little incident in my history, but I have always learned to appreciate what I learned from those failures. You can do the same.

 

So lighten up and smile!
If every day you wake up to write another chapter in "A Day in the Life of a Loser," you have the wrong viewpoint. You need to start over…THE FIRST DAY OF THE REST OF YOUR LIFE!!!! We need to change our idea of failure, and learn to harness it for our benefit (and grow, baby, grow!).

 

It's very important that we do our best to LEARN from our mistakes (failures). Instead of failing over and over again on the same thing, try to find out WHY you failed in the first place…and it may take a few more failures to figure that out. But if you're not afraid to fail, you have nothing to lose!

So stop being afraid of failure, and wake up to find your new best friend, Failure.

 

Check out John Maxwell's book, Failing Forward, for a much better coverage on this subject. In this wonderful book you'll find out how to get a hold on your fear of failure, how to change your idea of failure, how to use failure to your advantage, and a whole lot
more—all covered in the book, and I highly recommend it. It's really had a huge impact on me.

Keep on climbing, and remember: failing
doesn't make you a failure.