NFIB

Successful People are Not Afraid to Fail
03/ 25/ 2002


Practically every successful person has made a comment about the importance of overcoming the fear of failure. The themes of the comments are similar -- successful people realize that whenever a person is striving to achieve something worthwhile, failure can take place anywhere. The important thing, successful people agree, is not to dwell on the failures, not to think of them as typical. To become successful, a person needs to view failure as a temporary event, as a learning experience leading to greater success. Workshop contributor Jeff Moses discusses some examples of how failure can contribute to success.

Successful people see failure as the flip side of the coin of success. They have a bigger picture, learning from success instead of letting it discourage them. As Malcom Forbes said, "Failure is success if we learn from it." This should be the guiding thought of every person involved in business, small or large. Owners of small businesses are faced daily with numerous successes and failures. It's how you face them, and how you think of them, that determine in which direction your business will advance.

Here are some quotations about how failure impacts success from some wealthy and famous individuals.

* "The freedom to fail is vital if you're going to succeed. Most successful men and women fail time and again, and it is a measure of their strength that failure merely propels them into some new attempt at success." -- Michael Kord, a writer

* "Failure is only the opportunity to more intelligently begin again."-- Henry Ford, founder Ford Motor Company

* "The successful man will profit from his mistakes and try again in a different way." -- Dale Carnegie, writer and minister

* "You may be disappointed if you fail, but you are doomed if you don't try." -- Beverly Sills, opera singer

* "If you have made mistakes, there is always another chance for you. You may have a fresh start at any moment you choose, for this thing we call 'failure' is not the falling down, but the staying down." -- Mary Pickford, actress

* "Most people give up just when they're about to achieve success. They quit on the one-yard line. They give up at the last minute of the game one foot from a winning touchdown." -- H. Ross Perot, businessman and politician

* "Many people dream of success. To me success can only be achieved through repeated failure and introspection. In fact, success represents1 percent of your work which results from the 99 percent that is called failure." -- Soichiro Honda, founder Honda Corporation

* "No man ever achieved worthwhile success who did not, at one time or other, find himself with at least one foot hanging well over the brink of failure." -- Napoleon Hill, author

The universal consensus is that the difference between a person who succeeds and a person who fails is in how a person views a mistake. One person learns from a misstep, stands up again and goes on to greater achievement. Another person takes the misstep personally and begins thinking that success is beyond reach.

A few of the quotes above were from owners of enormous businesses, but everyone can learn from the experiences of business giants who were themselves one time small business owners. Remember, Henry Ford at one point was tinkering in his garage. H. Ross Perot was a salesman. And Napoleon Hill was a down-and-out writer hoping for a big break. Every wealthy person has a past, and every small business owner has a future.

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8.13.1999

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