Can you handle failure?
Failure sometimes helps us better understand what we are trying to do and how we should go about it. It sets a clearer picture for the direction that we should head.
"I honestly think it is better to be a failure at something you love, than to be a success at something you hate." George Burns.
Is failure just part of the parcel? Do we need to fail in order to succeed? Bill Gates did. Michael Jordan did too.
Your ability to handle failure and to some degree, blame, is imperative to being successful in everything you do. If you fail at something, being able to recognize the failure and embrace it, can help you learn the lesson you need to learn to achieve success.
Approximately 70% of Americans have a personality type that tends to react inappropriately when things go wrong. I am sure that this statistic is similar in places like Australia and the UK.
Of this 70%, many 'point the finger' at someone else rather than place blame or responsibility on themselves. Not dissimilar to relationships when arguments occur and people don't take responsibility for their own actions.
"The biggest failure you can have in life is not trying at all." Emily Motycka.
In business, failure is something that will happen from time to time. We cannot win at everything. Look at Facebook. They have been on a huge winning streak, yet after listing on the New York Stock Exchange, their mediocre results and downgrading of market capital has been significant. They have failed on listing - it's as simple as that. I know we are talking about a few billion dollars which quite frankly the founders can afford to lose, but their responsibility is to make a success of the public listing and increase the value for shareholders. Whether or not this is going to happen, remains to be seen.Have they learnt anything from this failure? I am sure they have. While they can blame technology and New York Stock Exchange for so long - we all know that the under-performing stock has everything to do with the fact that the stock was over-hyped and no doubt over-valued when it listed. I feel sorry for the Mum and Dad investors who are being robbed of their life savings because media has played a pivotal role in over-hyping the stock and building a dream for anyone who was willing to invest.
"I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work." Thomas Edison
When you fail in your business, regardless of size, sit back and analyze what caused you to fail and how you can do it differently next time. It's just the same with life. Learn the lesson and move on with experience and better insight to how you can do things differently.After all....
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comments ( 8 )
Amanda Flynn
13 Mar 2013Being able to accept failure only makes you stronger. Falling down 7 times and standing up 8 is something I always try to live my life by. I try find the positive in my failures and use that as motivation to try better and fix things that went wrong so they won't happen again. They're all lessons you learn a long the way to improve yourself.
ReplyAlexander the great
10 Oct 2012Intelligent words from a beautiful girl. well done article!
Replypriscilla
22 Jun 2012I like the quotes, very simple but very true. I like to think that life doesn't throw anything at us that we can't handle, success without failure would be trivial. Failure brings out the best and worst in everyone and I guess that's a great learning experience in itself, discovering what your potential is.
ReplyDavid
15 Jun 2012Failing will always be a part of life and everyone will experience it. Some of the greatest people in the world experience setbacks throughout thier career. Their ability is accept failure and trying to overcome them is something that is admired by many.
ReplyIt is important to look into your past failures, just to see how much you developed.
Prasanna Nadarajalingam
14 Jun 2012From reading this, Michael Jordan's famous quote comes to my memory 'I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed'.
ReplyIt seems as though failure is an integral aspect of success.
Sandra
14 Jun 2012Failure is apart of life, how we embrace or deal with it will determine our successes. I think it's like seeing the glass half full instead of half empty.
ReplyLast time I failed at something was a job interview. Interview was going well until I was asked about something I lied about, on my resume. I didn't get the role but a valuable lesson learnt after that.
Leo
14 Jun 2012I failed a couple of times in my life. Sometimes it is hard to face it and I tried to not think about it. Thus I postponed the issue every time without seeking any solutions because it bothered me. This is a wrong reaction. When we fail I think we should immediately deal with what this failure provoked, as soon as our ideas are still fresh.
ReplyFurthermore I might think the solution of our failure is people. In fact it is difficult to analyze where exactly we did wrong. For some reasons we focus on one point which hides another and it is this hidden point which caused our failure. Another wrong reaction when we failed is we tend to be alone and we don’t want any help. In my opinion we need people. We need people to think differently and getting another point of view in order to find out where the bottleneck problem is, solve it and go ahead towards success.
"I've failed over and over and over again in my life and that is why I succeed."
M. Jordan
Kathryn
13 Jun 2012I know i dont count for all the population of the Uk, but i do react inappropriately to failure. When something bad happens, my defence mechanism is to blame someone, orthrow a strop, and this is my natural reaction. However i am slowly learning that faiulre is not a bad thing ( even though at school you were always told it was), and i agree that failure makes you better/stronger person and that simple that way of doing something did not work, but there are plenty of other ways of acheiving that goal.
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