How do you view failure? Do you see it as something negative—something that you don’t want to be associated with or do you see it as something positive? Most people in the world don’t like failure.
It is because of the fear of failure that over 80 per cent of people in the world are not prepared to change their circumstances. Why do people fear failure so much? This is because they don’t understand the dynamics involved in success and failure.
Everything we do in life has either a right way of doing it or a wrong way of doing it. When we do it the right way, we meet with success. It’s needless to say that when we do it the wrong way, we meet with failure. Understanding this is important because it puts failure in its proper perspective and removes the fear around it.
Failure teaches you what works and what doesn’t. When you study the reasons for your failure and learn from it, you’ll find the key to your success. The great inventor Thomas Edison knew this truth better than anyone else. It took Edison 8,000 trials to perfect the Edison battery! Then he uttered this famous quote, “At least we know 8,000 things that don’t work”.
Even you should be like that. Every successful person has had to overcome temporary defeat at one time or another.
Know this: you haven’t really failed until you accept defeat.
Don’t let temporary defeat be an obstacle anymore. Don’t be put off by the fear of failure. Failure is an ally because it contains the seed of success.
This was first published in the June 2009 issue of Complete Wellbeing.
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