A closer look at the real success in life like, the Gates, The lincolns, The Fords, The Napoleon Hills,

This is good and bad. I tend not to try things unless I have a perceived 90% chance of success. I use the word perceive because you can truly never know. On the other hand, I never expect to fail, so I feel like I always succeed. I also pull out of things before they become catastrophic.

For example, my husband and I ran an online business for 2 years together (he did it for 3 alone before me). It’s ended and there’s about $30K in debt. I would say that was a failure, but recoverable. I’ll be recovering from it for years to come. Some people may view it as catastrophic. I think of the lessons learned compared to the price paid. Failing at that business makes my chances of success in larger endeavors greater.

That failure brought to light a lot of my weaknesses. Some I am willing and able to work on, and some that I’m willing to accept. Now that I know about them, I can surround myself with people who have those strengths.

I guess what I’m saying is that you’re going to fail in life, but every experience has in it the kernel of success. I think everyone, even straight A students fail. Some people fail smaller and faster than others.

Hope that makes sense.

In Spirit,
Nneka

Failure can be painful and it has to be trained. One of the signs of a great person, at least to me, is someone who can accept responsibility for his/her actions and admit they are wrong. Most people simply can’t do it and instead blames others. Doesn’t matter if it’s a small or large failure. It can be who left the sock drawer open or hwy the whole pension plan was invested in Enron stock.

I work in a fast moving part of the financial markets. I’m wrong many times during a day, I have to tell myself to get out and start again in a few minutes. It has trained me to be accountable and I have no problem taking a loss, blame myself, learn something, and move on. This training has taught me to do the same with life.

Failure is important, but try to avoid life threatening or disastrous mistakes. Easy to say….

AD

Anyway, I don’t think people must experience failure before their success. People can learn from others (that’s why we studied History in our school lifes, (which I hate the most!)), or they have enough knownledge or other experience to help them succeed without failing, or they planned so well, or some other people assisted them, or they simply got enough luck that can all bring successes to people without letting them to fail. But one thing is for sure, both successes and failures can bring their particular experiences to somebody, and having the failing experience sure can help one to success easier in their future. So failure, at certain extents, is not failure, at least that is what I think, and of course that failure is not a big one, just as your last quote in your article.

Along with this, it’s also important to let kids fail in ways that are safe, so they learn to cope with failure and are able to have the proper attitude toward it. This way, they’ll be equipped to handle it when it inevitably happens, and they’ll develop a resiliency which will keep them trying again and again without being too discouraged.