Self Help

Failure is the refusal to establish a plan and work toward its accomplishment regardless of the obstacles. Most of us were never taught that failure is a matter of choice, just as success is a matter of choice. Failure is not, as many people believe, the result of lack of talent, money, time, or other resources. Failure is simply the refusal to establish goals or objectives in your life and to work toward their achievement. Talk to people who have neither goals nor the motivation to succeed and you’ll find that their lives have no excitement, no purpose. They feel like failures.

The fact that you started a business and it went broke does not mean you failed. For example, in my early thirties, ten businesses that I started eventually ended up going broke. Did I fail in those ten businesses? Absolutely not. I simply found ten ways that a business wouldn’t work, and once you discover them all, it is difficult not to succeed the next time. At any point along the way, I could have quit. I could have said I don’t have the talent for business, and at that point I would have failed. I would have refused to continue, regardless of the obstacles. Instead, I knew that in time I’d learn everything I needed to know to create a successful business.

To succeed, you will constantly find yourself sailing uncharted waters, doing things you have never done before, but if you want any more from life than mediocrity, that’s where you’ll have to go. Any time you break new ground, you are taking a risk. You neither know exactly what’s ahead, nor how you’re going to handle it. The only alternative is not to go anywhere.

When striving to achieve your goals, there is no such thing as trying. We’ve all been told from the time we were children that it doesn’t matter if we win or not, just as long as we try hard. That is one of the greatest lies you can tell yourself or your children. “Trying” is a word meant to rationalize failure. It’s an excuse. In truth, when reaching for any objective, short term or long term, you either succeed or you don’t. There is no in-between. Trying, therefore, is a non-reality.

Lack of immediate success, however, is not failure. It is nothing more than the feedback you may need to modify your target date and even your plan for reaching your goal. “I tried” is a quitter’s statement. It says you have either given up or decided that not reaching your goals is an okay way to continue to live your life. Both attitudes, and they are only attitudes, are devastating to your personal effectiveness. Drop them. Drop the “I tried.” When you run head-on into a brick wall, simply get yourself back in the race with a new plan for winning.