One of the main topics that i coach on, and write about is that failure is the pillar of success. Very little worth achieving can be yours at the first time of trying. I think it is a tragedy how easily some people quit at the first signs of trouble. I constantly find myself writing the words “don’t give up” on this blog, and I feel that it is so important to get this message through to you. Who knows when lady luck is going to change. At any turn your fortunes could be waiting to change just around the next corner.
How often do we start moving in one direction, face opposition and then quit? You had a great idea, you had tremendous passion, but once the challenges come your way, you seem to just give up without much of a fight.
In Never Give up on Your Dreams I wrote:
Never Give up! Let nothing stop you from achieving success. In the quest to attain your dream, be determined, be persistent, be relentless.
This is a constant message throughout this blog. On an article titled When You Stop Dreaming You Stop Living I wrote:
Life can sometimes be a struggle and you may not always know what to do. Well let me tell you, the one thing not to do is give up on your dreams.
The message failure is the pillar of success is so important, it will always be a constant theme through my writing, again as demonstrated on Never Give Up Believing In Yourself where these words hopefully inspire:
Life is a test, a tough one, sometimes. And you got to get through it. Sometimes you feel lost. Doubts and negativity cloud the mind. Just don’t give up. Better times could just be around the corner, so you must keep fighting for just a little longer.
The message never give up is pretty much key to my role as a life coach. When people find their way to me they are at such a low ebb whether it’s with their business, relationships, or just things in their life in general. They’re at the point where they just have no idea how to move things forward, what to do to revitalise things around them.
I see my job as being that of helping them move forward and learning that failure is the pillar of success, not the end:
Develop the fire and passion that builds dreams!
Real success comes from passion. You have to keep following your dreams, believing in yourself, and to use the words of Winston Churchill NEVER NEVER NEVER GIVE UP!
Ask yourself this – what makes some people rebound from defeats and go on to greatness while others throw in the towel?
In many cases, they went for a dream in the past and failed. They then told themselves that’s the way things are for me. I’ll never be able to achieve my dreams.
Well let me tell you – it’s crazy to give up on your dreams because one didn’t come true…
Not everyone who’s on top today got there with success after success. More often than not, those who history best remembers were faced with numerous obstacles that forced them to work harder and show more determination than others. Failure is often just the first step towards success . Failure is the pillar of success, and once you see it like this, never again will it hold you back
When failure strikes, it’s simple, you have a choice.
You can either let failure prevent you from moving forward or you can utilize it to propel you to more success than you ever imagined.
“The great question is not whether you have failed, but whether you are content with failure.” Chinese Proverb
Failure is horrible, none of us want it. But it never needs to be the end of the road. There’s always tomorrow, and opportunities’ still await, failure does not need to be permanent, you can still create the success you so desire, but you have to keep going.
Opportunity often comes disguised in the form of misfortune, or temporary defeat.
You must never let failure put you down. To many people I’ve met have allowed failure to ruin their lives making them feel worthless, useless and taking away their hope for the future.
Accept that failure is going to happen at times. It will to all of us. Let it take you on a journey deep within yourself to find your strengths. Dig deep and find your greatness. Do you want to know what makes the difference for those that let failure keep them down or those who use it to keep trying until they succeed, its simple, you have to be fearless, persistent, determined, resilient having a burning desire to succeed.
Look around you. Every where you can find examples of those that have turned failure to success.
When Thomas Edison was seeking to invent the electric light bulb, he didn’t get it right the first time. In fact he had to make constant adjustment and try again and again. He kept learning from every experiment. It took him approximately 10,000 experiments before he got it right.
Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.
There are so many other examples of people who had failures and setbacks in their lives, but who kept moving on anyway. It would have been so easy for them to quit and say I’ve had enough of this, but they didn’t, and in the end they achieved their goals, because they never gave up.
Dr Seuss – his first book was rejected by 27 different publishers.
John Grisham also struggled with his first novel, and this was rejected by 16 agents and 12 publishing houses.
J.K. Rowling was met by 12 publishers who rejected her first manuscript.
Stephen King received 30 rejections on his first book from publishers.
So if these best selling authors didn’t give up, and went on to huge success, surely it shows you there are still awesome possibilities awaiting you.
It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all—in which case, you fail by default.
Let me tell you a few stories of some of the most incredibly talented people of our time who were told they didn’t have what it takes to be successful.
Elvis Presley having failed an audition for a local vocal quartet, the Songfellows explained to his father, “They told me I couldn’t sing”.
The Beatles were rejected by many record labels including Decca Records who said, “We don’t like their sound. Groups of guitars are on their way out.”
Barbara Streisand mother told her she wasn’t pretty enough to be an actress and she could never become a singer because her voice wasn’t good enough. In her early days as a performer it was said she was too Brooklyn, too Broadway, too Jewish, too special, too eccentric, too unattractive. Her songs were too old and too obscure and her style was too homosexual, being that she worked in a gay club.
Fred Astaire’s received after his first screen test a memo from the testing director of MGM, dated 1933, read, “Can’t act. Can’t sing. Slightly bald. Can dance a little.”
Dustin Hoffman couldn’t get acting jobs in New York and ended up as a janitor and an attendant in a mental hospital.
Sidney Poitier was told by the casting director after his first audition, “Why don’t you stop wasting people’s time and go out and become a dishwasher or something?”
The story of Sylvester Stallone to be is one of the most inspiring ‘never give up’ messages there is.
He dreamed of becoming an actor and inspiring millions of people through his movies. After years of unsuccessful attempts at getting acting jobs, his wife told him to give up his ‘stupid dream’ and get a real job. His reply was, ‘If i get another job, I would lose the only thing I have got going for me… my hunger.’ ‘By quitting and getting a job, I would be selling out on my dream’. Stallone actually wound up so broke and desperate that he was force to sell his dog for $50 in order to survive.
Then came the Rocky Story.
It would be great to be able to pass on to someone all of the successes, the failures, and the knowledge that one has had. To help someone, avoid all the fire, pain and anxiety would be wonderful.
I hope these inspiring people and their real-life stories can motivate you and inspire you to use your full potential in life, allowing your passion to help you achieve amazing results in your life. Not one of these famous, inspiring people stopped when the going got tough, they knew that failure is the pillar of success.
I am remembered for my successes and not my failures. Yet I have had many failures in my life and no doubts there may be a few more. What inspires people is when you have the ability to get back up when you get knocked down, especially when you get knocked down really hard.
To succeed in life there is one thing you are going to have to master… never quit, never give up, especially when you fail.
The sure path to failure is to give up! The certain road to success, is keep trying even when you meet failure on the path.
So don’t give up in life, and don’t give up on life. Keep going things will work out!
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Awesome quotes man, Thomas Edison’s is my personal favourite!
One anonymous one I also like and keep in mind is that “You’ll fail whenever you start something new. You’ll only get better at it with time.”
Thanks for the inspiration!
Andrew, thanks for visiting and offering such a brilliant quote. It is so true, the more you do something the better you get. When you first do anything you are generally going to be pretty bad, gee, i dare not look back at my first few blog posts i bet they prove that theory.
This is what I needed to hear today. Your words are inspiring. Also, it was great to see how some of my celebrity heroes overcame failure to be finally be recognized for their contributions.
Adriene thank you so much for what you say, its people like you that make this passion of mine so wonderful, by inspiring you it fuels me beyond anything i can put into words. Anything worth achieving is worth fighting for, that is what these magnificent examples demonstrate alongside the magic source of success, total belief in yourself and what you are doing
This goes along with another bit of wisdom…
A plan is a bunch of stuff you have so you can successfully ad lib when nothing works as one presumed.
And,…
One learns more from failure than success. We attribute our success to our brilliant planning and execution (rarely true), but demand answers from ourselves and others when we fail – and so discern how best to achieve success subsequently.
Roy thank you so much for such a valuable comment. Indeed ‘the best laid plans.’ I learnt long ago life is about trial and error, you’ve got to be prepared to make mistakes, and meet failure head on, to allow you to make the necessary adjustments to help you get where you want to go. We have to realise the magic plans we create have their purpose, but they’re never going to be 100% right, particular 1st time. The other lesson i pick up from your comment is we must never, i repeat never blame others.
Life is full of twists and turns and change is inevitable. The choices we make define who we are and how our life plays out. It is very easy to assume that people who have achieved a great deal of success are lucky. We create your own luck through the choices we make.
When we see this resilience in others especially famous people we should be motivated to never ever give up.
Thanks Larry loved reading your article.
As ever Loddy a truly insightful answer. We are always faced with choices, and its these choices that determine how ‘lucky’ we may seem to be. Yet even when we make the wrong choices, we still have the ability to move on, and make new choices.