Failure Can Help You Succeed

You may learn from your mistakes and use those experiences to your advantage.

If you’re here and reading this, there’s a good likelihood that you’ve already experienced some kind of setback. I am aware that it is hot. I am aware that it is painful.

I am aware that, if given the opportunity, you would like to avoid dealing with it and concentrate more on taking pleasure in the fruits of your achievement.

Who wouldn’t want that? The vast majority of people would behave in that manner, but you need to realize that failure is not what you imagine it to be.

The majority of individuals are under the impression that failure is almost always what stands between them and obtaining achievement.

People who are successful have unique mental processes. They are aware of the role that failure may play in their eventual success.

They were driven more by the desire for profit than by the fear of losing. What exactly does this entail? First, failure entails suffering.

Due to the fact that there is pain there, it is challenging. Although it is possible to experience bodily pain, which is somewhat uncommon but still a possibility, the majority of the time, people experience mental and emotional anguish instead.

There is nothing more excruciating than the realization that you have squandered a significant amount of time, effort, emotional energy, concentration, and willpower on something that was ultimately unsuccessful.

There is also an element of social discomfort involved, since others were aware that you were working on something, but you now have nothing to show for your efforts. You’ll feel like an idiot.

Because we want to impress the people we love and respect. It may not be pointing fingers at you, but it won’t help the hurt go away any faster just because of that.

People that are successful realize that failure involves suffering, and rather than attempting to escape this fact, they recognize that this means one thing and one thing alone.

This indicates that they need to work on the project with the sense of urgency that is due to it, given that failure might be devastating on so many different levels.

This is not the time for playing. This is not a funny situation. This is not a pastime at all. It’s not something you do just because you can’t think of anything else more interesting to do with your time.

It is not a hoax. Respect and attention are both required. People who are successful understand that they must endure discomfort.

Because of this, before engaging in the activity, they make sure that they have a complete awareness of the risks and repercussions involved.

They don’t avoid situations like this at all. They do not ignore the possibility of filing for bankruptcy. They don’t sweep the risk of a debacle under the carpet as other companies do.

They make direct eye contact with the other person. They observe the monstrosity. They recognize it for what it is, and after that, they think about what it is that they have to gain from it.

Then, as a consequence of it all, there is this element of calculated danger.

The discomfort is what stops them from being dishonest. The potential for failure is what motivates them to pay attention and stay focused.

This is how you can make failure work for you, rather than spending a large amount of time, effort, and emotional energy avoiding it, finding excuses for it, or dodging it, and so on and so forth.

This is how you can make failure work for you.

You have the awareness that falling short results in discomfort, and this motivates you to perform at a higher level.

Make your motivation the discomfort of having failed. Find the inspiration you need to keep your mind on the task at hand for the amount of time necessary to accomplish success.

Tomorrow is not the day when victory will come. The road to success is paved with hard effort, unwavering concentration, and the willingness to make sacrifices day after day, week after week, month after month, and year after year.

You may learn from your failures and use them to help you succeed.

Successful People Know Failure Is Their Friend

Did you know failure is your friend? You’re probably either laughing out loud or cringing. You probably have this almost irresistible urge to close this chapter.

Well, hear me out. Most people are afraid of failure. It doesn’t take a brain surgeon to figure that out. This is part of the human condition. They draw us to pleasure, and we recoil from pain.

We would love the big mansions, the swimming pools, the global vacations every two months, and the tons of money in the bank, but we hate, or we try to avoid putting in day-after-day at the office doing seemingly meaningless work.

Try to avoid meeting the very difficult people that can lead to great deals but it’s murder time to deal with them. We would like to get the reward without going through the painful process. I understand that since that’s part of human nature.

This is why we’re afraid of failure because we know it guarantees nothing. We can put in the work, the time, the effort, and make all the sacrifices, and at the end of that process, there’s nothing there.

You’re left holding an empty bag, but you’re already failing right now if you’re not shooting for your goals and dreams. You really are failing because every day you spend being paralyzed by failure is a day not spent working towards success.

Fear of failure can paralyze you and make you do things the wrong way. The worst thing you can do is to put things off and wait for the ‘right time’ to happen, but that right time never comes.

Stop waiting for tomorrow, because tomorrow will never come. There will be many duties, responsibilities, and obligations that will pop up all over the place that will distract you. They will throw you off track. You can bet on that.

Fear of failure can also make you hesitate and doubt yourself. Doubt is an emotional cancer in certain contexts. In the spiritual context, it’s positive.

In relationship contexts, it can be positive but for your capabilities, it is a cancer. It can burn away at you.

The worst part is it builds slowly until it explodes at the moment you least expect, and you end up crashing and burning. Don’t doubt your capabilities. Challenge yourself but don’t doubt.

The ultimate truth about you is that you can do it if you put in the time, effort, and sacrifice and choose the right goals. Unfortunately, if you’re so deathly afraid of failure, you don’t go through the learning process.

You don’t go through that. It’s painful. That’s why you’re avoiding failure, but it will not happen. You don’t even give yourself the chance to make it.

Successful People Think Differently

Successful people don’t fear failure. Believe it or not, successful people know failure is always a possibility but what do they do? They make it work for them. They view failure as the price they pay to learn.

If you want a good example of this, pay attention to that quote from Thomas Edison. He said, “I didn’t fail to invent the light bulb. I discovered 101 ways of not inventing light bulbs.”

Do you see the logic in that? Failure is the price you pay as you learn.

You can use it as a steppingstone to the ultimate success or you can use it as a gravestone to all your hopes, wishes, dreams, and ambitions. The truth is successful people view failure as a necessity.

Successful People Aim To Fail Quickly

You have probably read the chapter title and did a double take. You’re probably thinking to yourself, “Why in the world would somebody want to fail quickly?” “Isn’t failure something we’re supposed to avoid?” “Isn’t it something we’re supposed to run away from?” “Isn’t it a mark of embarrassment or even humiliation?”

Why in the world would successful people of all people aim to fail quickly? You should understand that successful people know failure is always a possibility. They don’t candy-coat it. They don’t deny that it exists.

They don’t make up excuses for it. They don’t dress it up in many fancy rationalizations, excuses, and justifications. They do none of that.

Instead, they look it straight in the eye. It’s always there. People feel the pain.

Maybe, it’s monetary. Maybe, it’s social which means loss of reputation. Whatever the case may be, failure means pain.

They realize so they look at what they stand to gain.

They do a calculated risk-benefit analysis and if the analysis comes out right, and the project is worth taking on, they still keep looking at the possibility of failure to motivate them.

These people know the difference between wanting to fail and getting ready for setbacks. Their mindset shifts to failing quickly. They want to know if this will not pan out.

I want this to flame out quickly so I can pick myself up, dust myself off, and go on to the next opportunity. Quick failure means quick lessons. It is not a judgment on your character as a human being.

It is not some summation of your value as a person. It doesn’t define you. Instead, you learn what you need to learn like Thomas Edison who once used a hair from a man’s beard in his efforts to invent the light bulb.

Obviously, that did not pan out, but that didn’t stop Edison from trying many times. You need to fail quickly so you can quickly determine that the road you’re on is not the right road.

You can then shift to go to another road and then try another one.

Quick lessons mean a faster track to eventual success. That’s how successful people think. People who struggle for the rest of their lives experience failure and look at failure as something that defines them.

What did they do? They dwell on it. Instead of a quick failure that yields important quick lessons, they dwell on the failure and the lessons they get are worst lessons because it’s all about them.

They’re not smart enough. People don’t like them. They don’t have enough money. They can’t get money.

They’re trapped in their life with all these ‘toxic’ lessons.

Fail quickly and get the lesson quickly. This enables you to minimize the cost and the pain. Pain will always be a part of the equation, but it doesn’t mean that you have to maximize it.

It doesn’t mean that you have to let it burn you and define you as a person. When you do that, you make success more elusive.