fail to succeed

We are so used to being afraid of mistakes and failures, that we prefer not to take risks and not to try, and if we have failed, not to start over. But after all, there is no growth without mistakes; it is impossible to achieve something without making mistakes or experiencing failures.

There is no way you can learn and improve to do better in life without failures. Perhaps you should change your attitude to failures once and for all?

You Have to Been Conditioned Wrongly Since Childhood

We get used to being afraid of mistakes while still in school. If you were given “F”, then you are the worst. You failed, lost and disgraced your name. And no matter what lesson you learned from this, learned something new or not.

With such an approach to education, it is not surprising that in adulthood we are all wildly afraid to make a mistake and be dishonored.

We have all been conditioned to believe that failure is bad. When we make mistakes in school, we worried that we will be punished.

Even during class, we try not to raise our hands and ask questions. All this because we are afraid that if we ask the wrong question, others may ridicule and laugh at us.

This fear of failure actually follows us to adulthood. It prevents us from living our best life and achieving our full potential.

However, when you look at all the things around you, regardless of whether it is in business or life, everything needs failures to thrive.

We all learn through failures. Without failures, there will be no learning process. And without the learning process, there will be no successes.

Without failures, you will not be able to correct mistakes, change and become better. It turns out that failure is a good thing.

Successful People Make Mistakes Too

It is hard to imagine that successful people also make mistakes, that they also have failures.

Every master was once a beginner. Nobody was born a champion. A champion becomes a champion because he was made into it.

Look at all the successful people who have achieved extraordinary results in their lives. You will discover that every one of them have gone through some kind of setbacks and failures on their journey to success.

1. David Neeleman, the co-founder of American budget airline JetBlue Airways, was dismissed from his post as vice president of Southwest Airlines. The rich experience of mistakes and achievements helped him to create his own airline.

2. Wanda Sykes, a famous comedian, actress and writer who was awarded an Emmy Award, failed on stage before her name became famous.

3. Howard Schultz, chairman of Starbucks, addressed 240 investors, offering his vision of a modern European coffee house, and 99% of investors turned him down.

4. Jesse Jacobs, the owner of the Samovar Tea Lounge cafe chain, walked around 71 banks before he received funding.

5. Ben Zander, the conductor of the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra, experienced a failure at a very early age when his mother sent a composition of his work to an art competition. When the results of the competition were announced, the judge said that Ben’s composition was so bad that he shouldn’t continue to write music.

Another story of defeat. Walt Disney is one of the greatest entrepreneurs. Young Walt was fired from a newspaper with a humiliating, shameful wording “for lack of ideas.”

The second failure was waiting for Disney by drawing his first cartoon character, the donkey Oswald, he linked himself to a partnership with an extremely dishonorable man who secretly redid all contracts behind his back.

One day, when Disney came to work, he heard: “All the cartoons, all contracts with movie distributors belong to me, and even the donkey Oswald, who has already become famous, also belongs to me. You are no longer the owner, nor the author!”

It was a sneaky stab in the back, dastardly betrayal. But it just stimulated the birth of the famous character Mickey Mouse.

Who knows, if this treachery had not happened, the history of world animation could have gone a completely different way, and you would never have had the opportunity to laugh and grieve with this wonderful character; there would not be such an extraordinary attraction in the world as Disneyland.

At the time of betrayal, Disney got a tremendous nervous breakdown. But he found the strength to say to this wretch: “Take this freak! There are a huge number of new heroes in the world!” And already on the way home, he painted the famous Mickey Mouse.

7 Quick Ways to Transform Your Failures into Successes

The key to turning your failures into successes is about how you handle the failures when they come.

Extraordinary people make mistakes and they fail, but they don’t give up. Instead, they choose to transform their failures into experiences, and bounce back even higher.

That’s exactly what you need to do. You must turn your failure into experience so that you can grow and become better.

Remember, if you learn from your failures and defeats, you haven’t really lost. Here are 7 points you have to understand to turn your failure into success.

1. Failure is the starting point.

Sometimes, having failed, I would like to remember nothing more. Defeat is not the final point, but the starting one.

Your failure will shape you and make you stronger. You grow your characters and build your mental toughness through failures.

“Calm seas will never make great sailors.”

Just remember one thing – failure is inevitable and failure is there to teach you something valuable.

When you fail, you learn. Like in school, when you fail your papers, learn from others. Plus, do you also know that you can get someone to write your college research paper for you?

The point is that failure gives you the opportunity to learn, and to become wiser. Failure is not there to stop you, but to grow you.

2. Get to the problem with curiosity.

Instead of getting angry at yourself and blaming everyone around you, ask yourself a few questions. What did you do wrong? What could you do to prevent this from happening?

And then think about what lesson you have learned. Now you are armed with wisdom and feel free to act further.

Thomas Edison wrote that every failed attempt is another step forward. This was what he said:

“I have not failed. I have just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”

Failure shows you the right way to get what you want, my friend.

3. Success consists of small failures.

Think of your failures as part of a big plan. Everybody stumbles. Put a tick near this item and confidently move on.

Now, don’t get it wrong to think that failure is the opposite of success. In fact, failure is the main reason why people become successful. In other words, failure is on the same side with success.

When you try something and you fail, don’t worry about it, instead, be excited because you have just learned something.

Do you know that when you drive, you have to make a lot of small adjustments to keep your car on the lane?

The same goes in life. You will surely encounter a lot of failures, big and small, along the journey. But the most important thing is that you make adjustment and treat your failures as feedback.

4.Get rid of confusion.

Many of us stop our path to success, because of uncertainty and perplexity. What to do next? Do not be afraid that you will be convicted or misunderstood.

Shake off all embarrassment and do not let other people’s thoughts take away your dreams. Prove that they were wrong.

5. Everyone has the right to fail.

You will have to allocate some space in your life for defeats because you have the right to them. Be always on the alert. Think of the fact that you have worked hard lately and that this is a new stage on the road to achievements.

6. Maintain your enthusiasm.

The real defeat comes when you decide to stay where you are. It doesn’t matter how many times you fall down as long as you have the courage and maintain the motivation to get back up again.

It only becomes a problem when you choose to be defeated and stayed there.

Just like what Winston Churchill has to say:

“Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.”

Keep your eyes on the rewards. Focus on the results and not the failures. Don’t worry about all the “what if’s”, choose to think about the excitement when you succeed.

7. It’s a character-building day

The more failures you have, the more persistent you will become. You will stop responding to failure. If you admit defeat, it will mean that you are afraid of the future. Be bold, try not to torture.

I love how Les Brown, the famous motivational speaker puts it. Brown said that setbacks, hardships, and failures are there to build your characters.

Thus, the next time when you are facing the challenges and tough times, tell yourself that they are the character-building days to build you into someone successful.

This article may contain affiliate links. Meaning, at no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase. As always, I only recommend products and services I trust.

By Shawn Lim

Hi there, this is Shawn. I inspire people to achieve their goals and dreams and to reach for higher success in life. If you want to learn more about me, kindly go to the About page. By the way, have you downloaded your FREE copy of The 90-90-1 Rule? Don't forget to do so. Cheers. :)

3 thoughts on “Why You Need Failure to Be Successful in Life”

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.