I have decided that failure is really something great when you really evaluate it. I have tried to do a number of things over the course of my life and not all of them have worked out. I spent numerous days and nights working on the vision at hand at the time, seemly all for nothing. I spent a lot of money investing in the thing that I believed in, seeing no return. I have cried many tears and when I dried my eyes, the thing that I had worked so hard for never came to pass.
As I entered into each new vision with hopes of making my vision come to fruition, one day it hit me like a ton of bricks. I never really failed at anything. What I did was build and grow and build and grow. You see, failure gives you the opportunity to do something great. With the new knowledge you have gained from days and nights of research, the one thing you didn’t fail at is developing you. Failing gives you knowledge. It helps you to look at life from different eyes. Failure exposes your weaknesses and allows you to depend on your strengths. Failing allows you to see that there is more work to do and more knowledge to gain. It allows you to see that you took a right turn instead of a left turn and that you were going in the wrong direction.
Failure is really great. It really is. While failure never feels good, I have learned to celebrate my failures. In order to be successful, you must fail over and over again to get to your true purpose and destination of life. Failure allows you to gain much more than you could ever lose. Some of the most successful people have failed so many times. I am sure if you were to ask Oprah if she failed before being one of the most respected women of our times, her response would be, “many times over, again and again”. Ask Tyler Perry or even Bill Gates, how many times had they tried to succeed before greatness set in. How many doors did they knock on and rejection met them each time. How many people have they contacted all to find out that they had no intention of helping them. But what made them great was they never allowed the No, the shut door, or even being put off by others to stop them from achieving greatness.
I have learned it’s not how many people that impact you, but how many people you impact that makes you great. You must will success to you. Walk it, talk it, speak it, and dream it. It must be like the air that you breathe, the food that you eat. Your desire must be undeniable and your drive unstoppable. Your will to win and to succeed has to supersede each failure that you stumble upon.
I have also learned that failure really isn’t failure when you gain something. Each appearance of failure gives you room to think and reevaluate each move that you take. No longer are you quick to act on emotions, but principles and a good mentor will help turn your failures into bouts of success.
Lastly, I have learned that one of the biggest gifts that we can give to ourselves that will streamline the amounts of failures that we encounter is having an ear to hear. We are so quick to know it all, and be all, that we really miss it all. Something as simple as listening to good advice, reading books in the area that you would like to achieve success in and turning your car into “Automobile University” will change everything for you. Many times, pride keeps us on the failure roller coaster. We must love ourselves enough to open up and receive things and ideas that will help us. Often times we spend hours, days, and even years going in circles when all we had to do is have a good ear to hear and receive. So I believe many failures are necessary for real success. But I must admit, I don’t really see anything as a failure anymore. If you are gaining something from what looks like a failure, it is not a failure at all.
Remember, what does not kill you will only make you stronger. The real key to being successful is failing over and over but never giving up.
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