LIFE AFTER FAILURE

"The successes of today are built, not on the spires of early triumphs,
but upon the rubble of earlier failures".

This statement was made to me many years ago and although I do not recall the source, it has so impressed me that I consider it one of my core quotations.

The history books are overflowing with examples of this and to my knowledge, many if not all of the most successful people arrive there along a road strewn with multiple rocks of failure.

As a young man, Abraham Lincoln went to war a captain and returned a private. He failed in several business ventures and as a Lawyer was only able to earn money by becoming an itinerant attorney. As a politician, he was no less successful. He was defeated in his attempt to be elected to congress, and twice to the senate as well in his first attempt for the vice-presidency. Yet as the 16th President he successfully presided over the most difficult period of American History.

Sir Winston Churchill failed as a student, was defeated in every election for public office although he was appointed to several cabinet posts, until his election as Prime Minister in 1940. His leadership is credited with saving England in WWII. In addition his was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for his work as an author.

Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company and father of modern assembly lines used in mass production, failed and went broke five times before he succeeded. He recorded his experience thus:

"Failure is only the opportunity to begin again,
This time, more intelligently".

Sigmund Freud, the father of Psychotherapy, was booed from the podium when he first presented his ideas to the scientific community, but eventually gained much acceptance and respect after he persisted.

Despite this however, most people approach failure with great caution and trepidation. So often the thought of failure weighs so heavily that many potentially successful ventures never see the light of day. To them, the “shame of failure” is worse than death itself. I recall my own father spending long hours in deep thought and consultation over a business opportunity because of the risk of failing, rather than the real potential for reward.

These people are described as “cautious and conservative”and the "pillars of the community".
They form the backbone of our society, which universally frowns on risk takers and failures. But the truth is that the most successful and the most progressive are found among the risk takers and failure-prone. That is indeed the secret weapon of all successful people. To them, the risk of failure like so many other intangibles, is “part of doing business”. In fact, they will readily refer you to the words of Paul Tillich, the Christian Theologian and Philosopher:

“He who risks and fails can be forgiven.

He who never risks and never fails,

is a failure in his whole being.”

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Failure is success if we learn from it.
…..Malcolm S. Forbes

It is fine to celebrate success, but
It is more important to heed the lessons of failure
….Bill Gates

Failure is an event, never a person.
…….William D. Brown,

Failure is the condiment that gives Success its flavor.
.…Truman Capote

There are two kinds of Failure;
Those who thought but never did,
and those who did but never thought.
......Lawrence E. Peters.

The men who try to do something and fail are infinitely better
than those who try to do nothing and succeed.
…..Lloyd Jones

Rather Fail with honor than succeed by Fraud.
...Sophocles

It does not matter how many times you fall,
What matters above all, is the first time you do not get up,
For then, and only then, you will have failed

…..Edward A. Moses

No man is a failure who has friends.
…….Clarence, “It’s a Wonderful Life”

Understand that failure is not the opposite of Success,
It's part of Success.
…..Ariana Huffington