What do you do every time you fail?
How do you feel about failure?
Do you stay down and cry? Or do you get up, dust yourself, and try again?
Take a moment to think about these questions. Your response and emotion to failure are the most critical factors to your success.
A study by Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management showed that failing early in your career increases your chances of future success.
Let’s be honest. You are going to fail along the way.
Don’t allow failure to stop you from achieving your dreams. The fear of failure must not stop you from taking risks.
The key is not to let our fear of failure keep us from taking action.
The greatest mistake you can ever make is to give in to fear, that is… the fear of failure.
If you are afraid of taking the necessary steps, decisions, and actions you need to pursue what you want to do right now…then you are suffering from the fear of failure.
The fear of failure will rob you of happiness, wealth, and success in life.
Fear will suck the life out of you…fear will turn you into a zombie…fear will make you show up for the job you hate just because you have to pay your bills.
The fear of failure will force you to remain in an unhappy relationship…living with the fear of failure feels like being stuck in a rut – that is an open grave with its ends kicked out.
The good news is that you don’t have to live like this anymore.
I will show you how to break free from the unending cycle of failure..that you have been experiencing. You will find out that failing is not a bad experience to have.
Yes, you heard right….”That you failed at a business or in a relationship is not the end of your life. “
I believe you need to fail to succeed.
Why? Because when you fail at something and learn from the event…your chances of overcoming your past failures and becoming successful are higher.
The following passage from the bible talks about why failure is good for success…
“Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.”- John 12:24
The moral of this holy passage is that … To achieve the success you will fail and make mistakes on the journey to accomplish what you truly desire.
Let’s talk about why failure is good for success.
Failure is good for success because they are the events that build our character. And test our resolve to accomplish what we truly want in life.
When you make mistakes and experience setbacks, you must…and get up each time you fail forward.
Renowned British writer CS Lewis said
“Failures, repeated failures, are finger posts on the road to achievement. One fails forward toward success”.
How do you fail forward? The answer is you need courage. You must have the courage to act in the face of your fear of failure.
Robert F. Kennedy said
“Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.”
Winston Churchill said
“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that count”.
Courage is what you need when you feel that the odds are against you to be successful.
Courage is what you need to overcome your doubts about making it in business, building wealth …or getting to the top of your career.
To have courage is to feel the fear of doing what you want to do…and doing it anyway.
Susan Jeffers, bestselling author of Feel the fear and do it anyway, said the only reason most people are afraid to do what they want is that…they think they cannot handle the consequence of failure.
- What’s the worst that can happen?
- Taking action-ready-fire-aim
- Faith and persistence
I know about the pain that comes with failure!
And I know what it takes to bounce back up because I have dared to get up after every crash in my career, business, and relationships.
Let me share a story…about one of my many crashes and how I bounced back…
I hope it will help you deal with whatever situation you are dealing with.
A few years ago..at the start of my real estate investing career… I bought a three-bedroom apartment in South London, believing that “You cannot go wrong with real estate investing”.
To my shock and surprise… my decision to buy this apartment turned out to be the worst and costliest financial mistake I have ever made.
Everything that could ever go wrong with investing in property went wrong! …Because I had not done my due diligence, I had to fork over $6000 for deferred maintenance due to the roofing of the building
The Homeowners Association fees were nearly 20% of the mortgage cost. I had to pay $5000 to fix the outdated heating system …. This property was like Freddy Krueger in the movie Nightmare on Elm Street! It felt like I was having nightmares and then waking up to experience the financial nightmare about the property.
My decision to invest in this property hit my mental health. For the first time in my life, I had panic attacks whenever I saw the property’s mortgage statement. Or whenever I got a call about the property.
I was winding down a financial hole. Until one day, I felt I had a lifeline to deliver me from financial hell. I saw the light at the end of my dark money tunnel.
You see, it is at those times when you are desperate… that you find inspiration. Because at the time … you have no choice anyway…but to find a way out of hell.
Yes, I found a way out of hell! I remember clearly the very moment…when I had my flash of inspiration. One of those days, I was driving to work… listening to a motivational tape by Jim Rohn.
Jim Rohn said
”There will always be winter, spring, summer and fall…sunshine and darkness. You’ve got to work with them” …and when the hard times come as it must…do not wish things were easy, instead ask for wisdom”.
Wow! I was blown away by the statement. Do not wish it were easy, instead ask for wisdom. In other words, Jim was implying that the key to overcoming failure was to get wisdom. And develop the skills that will allow you to overcome your challenges.
Wisdom and skills are the antidotes to failure.
Jim Rohn also said your beliefs in life were essential to your success.
Two lessons I learned listening to Jim were: Having the correct beliefs and getting the skills to overcome my setbacks.
How did I apply these two factors-the correct beliefs and develop skills to bounce back?
I first questioned the belief that “you can’t go wrong with real estate investing”.
After careful reflection and looking at my actions…I learned you could invest in real estate and lose all your money if done for the wrong reasons. I had blindly invested money in a neighborhood that I knew nothing about. I failed to do due diligence about rental prices, maintenance, and other expenses associated with owning a property in the area.
The next thing I did was to immerse myself in learning about real estate investing.
Why? Because I found out I was clueless about many things…zoning laws, tenancy agreements, property taxes, and much more. I started attending seminars. I bought books on real estate investing, joined a Landlord Association, and property investor networks..made friends with realtors in the area…built a contact list of plumbers, electricians, roofers, and anyone connected to fixing up properties.
As I took action on digging myself out of my self-made money pit… I slept better at night…and even though I was still in debt, I had confidence that I would get back on my feet.
The good news is that I bounced back…and applied the lessons I learned from my disastrous real estate investing experience… to become a better and more successful landlord. Yipee!
I learned from my mistakes and bounced back on my feet, and I am now a winner!
That’s my story…
How about your story? Are you going through hell right now? Does the fear of failure paralyze you because of your experience of trying and failing?
There is hope that you can win because your past does not decide your future.
You can bounce back from past failures. Yes, you can win and live your dreams.
With the right mindset, failure can be a great teacher. The tricky thing is to learn from failure and keep on trying.
I encourage you this week to learn from your failures, acknowledge your successes, and keep moving forward.
I would love to hear your stories of failure. Get in touch.
To your success!