Bill Gates, Abraham Lincoln, Isaac Newton, Michael Jordan and dozens of other mega successful people around the globe can back me up on the fact that there’s no success without failure.
Throughout the history of achievement there are hundreds of examples of how rejection precedes success and how painful failures precede extraordinary accomplishments.
I believe the reason why it happens is because a man is like a cup. Success, on the other hand, is water that fills the cup up.
Now imagine what happens if the cup isn’t big enough to fit all the water that’s pouring in …the cup overfills and the water is spilled all over the place.
We have to grow our cups before we can expect to fill them up with massive amounts of water. It’s impossible to receive more than we can handle; more than our cups can fit.
In a way, life is keeping us out of trouble by structuring barricades and obstacles. Who knows what can happen when we receive all the power with no real comprehension of what we attain?
And what about appreciation? How much more would one to be thankful for the gifts of fame and glory? The only person that can answer that is only the one that experienced this very phenomenon to the fullest. Here are a couple of historical examples:
Bill Gates. In the 70’s before starting out, he was a Harvard University dropout. The most ironic part is that, he started a software company (that was soon to become Microsoft) by purchasing the software technology from “someone” for only $US50 back then.
Ludwig van Beethoven. Before the start of his career, Beethoven’s music teacher once said of him “as a composer, he is hopeless”. And during his career, he lost his hearing …yet he managed to produce great music.
Abraham Lincoln, received no more than 5 years of formal education throughout his lifetime. When he grew up, he joined politics and had 12 major failures before he was elected the 16th President of the United States of America.
Walter Disney. Disney started his own business from his home garage and his very first cartoon production went bankrupt. During his first press conference, a newspaper editor ridiculed Walt Disney because he had no good ideas in film production.
Steven Spielberg. During his childhood, Spielberg dropped out of junior high school. He was persuaded to come back and was placed in a learning-disabled class. He only lasted a month and then dropped out of school forever.
Soichiro Honda was turned down by Toyota Motor Corporation during a job interview as “engineer” after World War Two. He continued to be jobless until his neighbors starting buying his “home-made scooters”. Subsequently, he set out on his own to start his own company.
Akio Morita, founder of giant electric household products, Sony Corporation, first product was an electric rice cooker, only sold 100 cookers (because it burned rice rather than cooking). Today, Sony is generating US$66 billion in revenue and ranked as the world’s 6th largest electronic and electrical company. See more famous failures here and here.
There’s no real, long lasting, meaningful success without at least 1 major fiasco.
Accept failure as a necessary step to great achievement. Perceive setbacks as your personal GPS advising you to take left at the next intersection.
And most important-never wallow. Always keep moving forward-learning, growing and expanding your character and widening your cup.
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This is a post a lot of people should really think about. Failure is a huge key to success. Success doesn’t just happen. In fact, when you think about it, your regular job is failing you from reaching out in the world and grabbing success by the horns if you don’t allow yourself to take action on what could be your opportunity to a bright new life.
There are people who are going to follow the crowd and then there are people who are going to follow their own crowd.
I had a real hard time dealing with failures.
Once, I even nearly quit, when I failed at
one of my projects. Thank God, my girlfriend
was there to pick me up and save me from
what could have been the stupidest decision
of my life.
Igor
I’ve had my share of minor fiascos, and a minor-major business one these past couple of years in the real estate arena (time will tell….) I am always encouraged when I read posts like these, because I then know I am in the company of the great ones: as long as I can learn from the failure and proceed more expertly the next time.
Steve-Personal Success Factors´s last blog ..You Can Find More Success Factors for 2010 Online Impact Here
I had no clue Real Estate agents read my blog, wow!
I am honored to tell the truth, thanks Steve for stopping by
and leaving a comment!
Igor