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The Secret of Success - Failure
by, Dan Johnston, Ph.D.
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We live in an achievement and success oriented world where being
a winner is greatly rewarded. While we admire successful people
and want to be like them, we often don't want to pay the price of
succeeding. It can seem much too high. You see the price of
success is - failure. To succeed you must try something. You must
make an effort of some sort, and your effort may fail. You have
to risk failure to succeed. Paradoxically, failure is therefore
the secret of success. The price of success and the secret of
success are the same. Are you willing to be a failure in order to
become successful?
Many times we are not willing to fail. Failure can be
embarrassing. Others might laugh at us. Self-esteem could
plummet. In our perfectionistic culture, failure is not well
tolerated. We are often taught to avoid it at all costs. Have you
ever tried to avoid failure? Have you ever quit something you
were not good at rather than fail?
Maybe it was learning to dance, play tennis, or type? You
couldn't do it right so you quit. How about the experience of
learning to ride a bike? How do you learn to ride a bike? You
begin by falling off. Each time you fall you have the opportunity
to learn something. Fall off and get back up enough times, and
you will learn to ride. Suppose, however, you quit after the
first fall saying, "I just can't do it." You will be right. You
won't learn because you will not allow yourself to go through the
failure experience.
Success comes from perseverance. Once you begin something, you
must stick to the task. In a recent interview the successful
actor Harrison Ford said, "I learned early on that success was
tied to not giving up." He was talking about persistence. You
too must be persistent to be successful. Be persistent even in
the face of failure or, perhaps, especially in the face of
failure. Keep at the task until you get it right. When seen from
the proper perspective, failure is postponed success - but this
is true only if you don't quit. Winston Churchill said that,
"Success is going from failure to failure without loss of
enthusiasm." Do you have such enthusiasm? Are you willing to
practice the secret of success? Are you willing to fail?
Today look around and see what challenges you can undertake. Find
something difficult and try it. If you fail, remember, when you
fail always fail forward. Learn to do this consistently and your
life will begin to be more successful.
Copyright 2001, Dan Johnston, Ph.D.
Dan Johnston, PH.D is a clinical psychologist and author of
"Lessons for Living: Simple Solutions for Life's Problems," a
self-help book of common sense ways to make life go better. He
is also the creator of the Awakenings Web Site
(http://www.lessons4living.com) which offers tools for psychological and spiritual growth. E-mail:
mailto:dan@lessons4living.com
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