Far too many people have bought into the myth that failure is fatal and is something that should be avoided. In reality, failure is the world’s most effective learning experience. Most of our greatest accomplishments were made possible through failure–learning to walk, ride a bike and drive. Why should the rest of our life be any different? My father used to say, “Talk with any self-made millionaire and you’ll find they’ve gone broke at least three or four times.” Why? These people took risks, failed, learned from their failures and tried again. Each failure taught them some very important lessons that ultimately paved the way to their success. The lesson here is that failure is your friend, not something to be avoided. As Thomas Edison said on numerous occasions, “If you want to increase your success, try doubling your failure rate.”
One Sentence Wisdom
- “Failure isn’t fatal, but failure to change might be” – John Wooden
- “Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.” – Robert F. Kennedy