As Benjamin Franklin once said:“The man who does things makes many mistakes,but he never makes the x05x05biggest mistake of all - doing nothing.”
Many of the world’s wealthiest people have failed in business,some more than once.What sets them x05x05apart from other ‘failures’ is their ability to learn from their x05x05experiences and put failure behind them.We should never be x05x05afraid to fail; only to fail to learn from our failures.
Failure can be a great teacher – it teaches us what not to do.Our lives x05x05are filled with goal-setting and working to achieve those goals,and x05x05when we do something that doesn‘t get us where we want to be we can choose to either give up or to try something else.And at that point we x05x05already know one approach that won’t work.
Once we begin to look for other means of achieving our goals we open up our minds and have to apply our intellects to alternative courses of action that might earlier have been ignored.We learn to create a x05x05greater number of options and to be more critical in evaluating them.
With the right kind of x05x05personality – the entrepreneurial kind,failure is a motivator.Nobody x05x05likes to fail and it can make us even more determined to find success.x05x05Failure is never seen as the end result of a drive toward a goal; it’s x05x05only a setback.
This ability to fall and rise again builds character in a person.Just being able to get up and try again is a means of proving to ourselvesx05that we are bigger than whatever it was that caused us to fail.We’ll x05x05know more next time; we’ll be stronger and better-equipped to reach the x05x05goal.
It doesn’t mean that failure blinds us to the truth.We have to be x05x05realistic in our assessment of why we failed if we’re going to find any x05x05benefit in it.Our self-perception is sharpened as is our ability to x05x05analyze our weaknesses and compensate for them.
You’ve no doubt heard the expression “what does not destroy me makes me x05x05stronger” or words to that effect.Those are the words of the German x05x05philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche,and they apply to entrepreneurs in the x05x05same way they do to champion athletes.The only way to success is to lay x05x05yourself on the line and try as hard as you can.
And just as in sport,failure builds the strength of the businessperson x05x05and makes them tougher for the next attempt.You gain a clearer vision x05x05of victory and define your goal in detail.You feel less pain when x05x05you’re exerting maximum effort.
Life isn’t easy and failure proves it; it also proves that hard work can x05x05be rewarded.Having an early or easy success can be misleading.Think of x05x05a child that has everything given to it.Does that prepare the child for x05x05adulthood?It does not!x05x05Experiencing failure is good preparation for life in the world of x05x05business and prepares us for dealing with reality and hard facts.
Don’t take failure personally.It’s an experience that tells you x05x05something didn’t work out and that you have to try something else next x05x05time.If failure is taken the right way you will have acquired valuable x05x05knowledge and made progress towards your goal of success.You will be x05x05wiser and stronger as a result.
Among many notable people who failed early in their lives and later went x05x05on to greatness are Abraham Lincoln,Albert Einstein,and Helen Keller.x05x05They each had the option of giving up or learning from their experience x05x05and applying this knowledge to try again for success.
Sumner M.Redstone,Chairman and CEO of Viacom,one of the world's x05x05largest entertainment and media companies,said this about how his early x05x05failures helped get him to where he is today:"Big success is not built x05x05on success.It’s built on adversity,failure and frustration,sometimes x05x05catastrophe,and the way we deal with it and turn it around."