How To Become Successful Through Failures?
One of my favorite authors, Napoleon Hill, said, “A quitter never wins and a winner never quits.”
One of the things that we have to understand is that failure is inevitable. It's something that we cannot escape.
I remember the first time I failed at something. I was 11 years old. I was in grade six. That was the stage where we completed our exit exam to enter high school. I remember when my mom entered the house. She looked at me and said, you failed.
That day, I cried like a baby. The memory felt like a mark engrained in my brain.
I remember the first time I failed at something. I was 11 years old. I was in grade six. That was the stage where we completed our exit exam to enter high school. I remember when my mom entered the house. She looked at me and said, you failed.
That day, I cried like a baby. The memory felt like a mark engrained in my brain.
I couldn't believe that I failed the exam. However, if I am being honest with myself, I wasn't exactly shocked. I was confident that I was going to be successful. For the years I have been in primary school, I never failed. I always passed to go to another grade and did this effortlessly.
At that time, I enjoyed spending time with my friends. I loved playing. That was my thing. So, when I got my results and I heard that I failed, I was disappointed in myself. But, it did not break me.
It made me realize that failure will come no matter what. I understood that failure is no respect of persons. That was an eye-opener for me.
I wanted to prove to myself that I can be successful. As a result, when I entered secondary school (high school), the attitude I had in primary school, I didn't take that attitude to high school. I worked, I studied, I listened, I applied.
I brought this attitude to my adult life. I still encountered failures, but it drove me to work harder. What I realized is that once I was able to overcome that failure, on the other end, there was success.
Napoleon Hill said,“If the first plan which you adopt does not work successfully, replace it with a new plan. If this plan fails to work, replace it in turn with another.”
Imagine a child running, laughing and having fun. Then, in an instance, the child falls. The child may cry. The child may not. But, give that child at least an hour or probably a couple of minutes and you will see that same child running again, laughing and enjoying him or herself.
Sometimes, we need to be like kids. When we fall, we get up, we smile and we keep going.
How can we become successful through failures?
I am going to share with you some tips that have helped me throughout the years.
1. Learn to accept failures
Sometimes we look at persons who are millionaires, and we envy them, which we should not. We find ourselves saying things like, I wish that was me or we may say, look at how easy things are for them. However, we don't see what happens behind closed doors. We don’t see what that person had to go through to get where they are. And I am talking about people who made their millions through their effort and not an inheritance or lottery win.
We didn’t see the failures that person encountered to get to that point in their life. So the faster you are willing to accept the failures, the closer you are to becoming successful.
2. Take a lesson from every failure
There is a lesson from every failure. The lesson you gain from failing makes you stronger and better able to serve people. If you don't fail at certain things, you won’t have a story to tell. In other words, you won’t be able to share insights on how you solved that problem. You need to fail at something to learn and become better at that thing.
3. Be willing to learn from others so that you can become better at your craft
I have always hated a know it all. I don't like to be around people who feel or act as if they know it all. I have been a teacher for 13 years and I have come across a few teachers who acted as if they knew it all. They felt like their answers were always correct. They didn’t like listening to others’ viewpoints.
Never be that person who feels like you are so experienced that you can't learn from others. You become greater at your craft when you always remain a learner.
4. Be patient
Stop looking at others and focus on yourself. Success is not always immediate. If you are willing to be patient and learn along the way, success will be at the end. While you are working towards your success, take the time to become master at what you're doing. You don't always need to get that success immediately because you're still in the learning process.
5. Stay away from negative people
Keep away from those people who will tell you that you can't do it. Keep away from people who will tell you to just give up and move on. Stay away from negative people who will not uplift you. Stay away from people who will not motivate you. Those are people who will just keep you stagnant in life.
You don't want to be five years later and say to yourself, I wish I had. I wish I had. Instead of saying I wish I had, five years later, you should be saying I did. I did. I did.
FAIL FORWARD AND SUCCESS WILL BE AT THE END.
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