You Cannot Succeed Without Failure

“ There are no secrets to success it is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure “ — Colin Powell.

It is not a secret that the greatest fear we have is often failure. Perhaps it is one of the greatest fears that anyone has ever experienced. Unfortunately, you cannot detach failure from success.

Ask even the most successful people if they have ever failed the answer will be a resounding yes. This just goes to show how important it is to learn from failure.

In my years of being a student of personal development and self-growth, the fear of failure has played a major part in my progress in many areas of my life and sometimes it can be a hindrance to progress.

The fear of failure to achieve my dreams; the fear of failure to succeed academically; the fear of failure to provide for my family; are some of the fears that motivate me to work even harder.

Am sure you can relate to the fear of failure with your own life. But, what if I told you that actually failure was a good thing? Albeit Einstein once said, “failure is success in progress.”

Failure has a way of bringing out the best in you. Encountering failure is one of the best ways to help achieve your success. I have discovered that the more you fail the more prepared you are for success.

Look, am not saying that you must be happy when you fail. But you must make sure you learn from your failures to achieve your next success. Take time to analyse what made you fail before moving forward.

Here are a few things that failure can do to you to help you on your road to success.

Failure Keeps You in Check

There is a tendency to raise our egos when we are experiencing success. Often times we look down on people that we think are not achieving as much as we are.

Well, guess what, failure brings you down to earth from cloud nine and makes you realise that you are not a superhuman. It helps you be in touch with reality. Failure makes you humble when you desperately need to be humbled.

I have come to appreciate that being kept in check is very important as you are climbing the ladder of success. When you are experiencing constant success there is a tendency of being enslaved by success, before you know it you will be doing anything, even wrong things, just to make you stay at the top.

But nature has a way of keeping us in check. When you experience failure you realise that life is about ups and downs and that success should not be taken for granted. Failure is a good teacher.

Failure Creates Extraordinary Change

Experiencing failure could be a catalyst for both positive or negative change. What grows out of the initial experience with failure is entirely up to what lessons were learned.

In life, it is easy to become demotivated and downcast when we experience failure. Instead, we must learn to use failure as a springboard to propel and motivate us to succeed. Learn to reset your mind and create the much needed mental change.

Adversity can make even the most talented people refine the roadmap of their destiny, while other equally talented individuals could allow it to derail and kill their dreams.

Most of us know the story of Steve Jobs, that he was fired by Apple in 1985 and many of us know that Michael Jordan was cut from his High School basketball team. Yet they were able to bounce back and are considered legends.

I would like to think that if both Steve and Michael had not failed at some point in their lives they would not have gone to achieve what they did. I am sure they learned a lot from their failures as they pursued their different careers. They did not give up.

In other words, failure is necessary to shake things up in our lives. Without which we would be comfortable and not make the much needed quantum leaps.

When you want to make it in life you must realise that you will always encounter adversity. The way you handle life’s challenges will determine your level of success.

Failure Can be Informative

One of the best sources of information in my life is in the failures that I have experienced. Look, the fact that you have encountered adversity does not necessarily mean you are a failure. Get up and continue on your journey of life.

In life, you must take lessons from every result that does not go your way. Never throw in the towel when things are not going as expected. Instead, sit down and learn from them.

Get as much information as you can possibly can from your negative results. They are simply telling you what you should avoid in the future. I normally take failure as a learning tool.

If I fail to achieve a goal I list down what I think lead to the failure and try as much as possible to work on correcting the mistake. In doing this I also discover new methods or processes that I had no idea existed. I end up enriching my skills.

Yes, sometimes in the process of making corrections I fail even more. I know that this can be very demotivating and discouraging most of the time, but that’s what life is all about. If you have to be an achiever you need to have patience, persistence, and perseverance.

The value of information and lessons learned from your failures is immeasurable.

Conclusion

I know that many of us do not want to be associated with disappointment. We only want to be associated with success.

But I can guarantee you that success does not come without challenges. If you are looking to succeed be least assured that you will encounter adversity.

Failing a way of preparing us for what lies ahead. Failure is the seed of growth and success.

Originally published at https://www.insakanet.com on February 22, 2021.