“Failure should be our teacher, not our undertaker. Failure is delay, not defeat. It is an unexpected detour, not an unpleasant end.” Denis Waitley
“Failure should be our teacher, not our undertaker. Failure is delay, not defeat. It is an unexpected detour, not an unpleasant end.”
No one enjoys failing.
You see plenty of books on the shelves of stores with titles such as “How to Succeed and Live a Happy Life” or “How to Be a Success in Your Marriage, Family, and Your Work.”
What don’t you see?
Titles like “How to Be a Failure” or “How to Fail in Both Your Personal and Career Life.”
No one wants to fail, and no one certainly wants to be known as a failure.
The truth is, however, that failure is a natural part of life.
We should not link our permanent happiness or unhappiness to points of failure in our lives.
We’re all bound to make mistakes at one point or another, which means we will, at some point, fail.
The question is, what do you do when you fail? Can failure be a stepping stone to success?
The ancient king of Israel, Solomon, said, “A just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again…”
When a quarterback gets knocked down, does he normally stay down on the ground? Of course not! He gets back up and charges right back into the game, and if he gets knocked down again, he repeats the same action over and over. He does not allow his failure to define him, and we do not have to, either.
Did you ever think of failure as being fruitful? Is there a happy side of failure? Let’s look at a few of those hidden blessings we receive when we fail.
There is only one way to avoid failure — inaction.
If we can only avoid failure by doing absolutely nothing, how can we possibly ever make any progress in life?
Ultimately, the biggest failure of all is to attempt nothing. It’s better to have the peace of mind that you had the courage to try, rather than face the pain of wondering what might have been.
Very few people learn through succeeding.
“Success is a lousy teacher because it makes some people feel that they cannot lose.”Bill Gates – Founder of Microsoft
“Success is a lousy teacher because it makes some people feel that they cannot lose.”
Failure, however, can teach more lessons about success than even success itself. Learn to embrace your failures and look for the lessons you can glean from them. Use the lessons your mistakes teach you to enable you to avoid making those same mistakes again further down the road.
Thomas Edison’s teachers said that he was “too stupid to learn anything.” He was fired from his first two jobs for being “non-productive.”
As an inventor, Edison made 1,000 attempts at inventing the lightbulb before finally succeeding. When a reporter asked, “How did it feel to fail 1,000 times?” Edison replied, “I didn’t fail 1,000 times. The light bulb was an invention with 1,000 steps.”
“I have not failed. I’ve just found 1,000 ways that will not work.” Thomas Edison
“I have not failed. I’ve just found 1,000 ways that will not work.”
Thomas Edison clearly embraced his failures and learned from them, and we enjoy the product of his success (and failures) to this day.
As we have said before, we do not have to stay down when we are defeated. We can get back up and begin again.
Henry Ford, who went broke five times before finally succeeding, was known to have said “Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.”
There’s a happy side to failure. We do not have to wallow in our failures but can start afresh using the knowledge and experience we have gained to help us truly achieve our potential.
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Until next time, have a happy day.