As one who has experienced failure many times, I am fascinated by its power. Apparently, not just over me, but over many of the biggest names in the world. Most of us are scared to death of failure, living our lives and making life-altering decisions based on our fear of failure and our intense desire to avoid anything that remotely smells of failure.
Yet failure is the root of all success.
And that is what fascinates me most! I watch Donny Deutsch: The Big Idea www.bigideadonny.com on CNBC almost religiously, since I am constantly in search of inspiration for my own as-yet-to-be identified Big Idea. He recently did a series of shows on business failures and the leaders held responsible for those failures, and how they later succeeded in spite of them. We've all heard the stories about people who have tried and failed, then tried and failed again, only to ultimately emerge victorious. We've heard about baseball players who strike out three times in a game and then hit a home run that wins it.
What strikes me when I read or hear stories of triumph after failure is the wording frequently used: "... and he succeeded in spite of his mind-numbing failure!" When, in fact, it is always true that we succeed because of our failures! The very nature of a drug experiment, for example, requires hundreds of tests and failures before leading to a cure for disease. Best-selling author Brian Tracy says, "Failure is a prerequisite for great success. If you want to succeed faster, double your rate of failure."
And yet! If only we were able to take a step back from ourselves, our egos, during this trying time, and see what the Universe knows: that our life-altering failure is, at that moment, only a blip in time, and one that is absolutely necessary to achieving our ultimate destination: enlightened, fully-lived adulthood.
Even with that realization, I am myself a victim of this fact: failure breeds fear. Fear of trying, fear of failing, fear of succeeding(!), fear of not trying ... ! The list goes on. I have experienced failure all too often - and too recently - and am very nearly paralyzed by it. Even though, intellectually, I can take that mental step back and realize what is happening, I have been unable to emerge from it - to see the forest for the trees. Even though I know that nearly every failure I have experienced has resulted in a bigger - or entirely different - success, I have never developed a roadmap for getting there from here. It seems to have simply happened without my conscious effort, over time. And I just don't have the patience to wait!
So that will be my next post. I'll tell you about my (most recent!) failure and how I'm trying to get past it. And maybe you can help me out. Have you been stopped by failure? The fear of failure? The fear of success? Have you found a way to overcome it? What was your roadmap to success? Do you have a favorite "failure" quote? I'd love to hear from you. I have so much to learn!
- Grace
"What is there in a storm that moves me so? Why am I so much better and stronger and more certain of life when a storm is passing? I do not know, and yet I love a storm more, far more, than anything in nature." - Kahlil Gibran
2 comments:
This is why you're my inspiration both in business and in life! You are so real, so honest -- and, in my mind, totally and completely successful. Oh, I know you've endured those situations that make us question everything -- competency, motivation, direction -- but you do it with such... well, such GRACE!
For me, failure serves as a guiding light. When I fail at something, it serves to highlight and pinpoint what I'm actually GOOD at and what I SHOULD be doing. Then it becomes a matter of following that light. Sometimes that's the hard part!
Carol
Thanks for posting, Carol - and for the words of inspiration and praise. They mean the world to me!
I think you're right: failure is a guiding light. But are you really as sanguine as all that when you're going through it?
For me, I have a hard time finding that light - let alone following it!
- Grace
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