To Your Success….I Hope You Fail
It’s not a statement you’d expect from a person who’s calling in life is to facilitate growth and success in others is it? But that’s the point, success is a consequence of personal growth, and personal growth is amplified as a consequence of failure.
We have a perception problem. Knowledge is not a prerequisite for success. Some of the most knowledgeable people on the planet are unhappy, unhealthy, financially destitute and struggle to have meaningful connections with other people.
Success is a consequence of wisdom, and wisdom is knowledge applied through experience. And even that isn’t the full story, because we don’t really learn from our experiences, if we did, we wouldn’t keep on doing the things that no longer serve us in relation to our expansion and success. We learn from evaluated experience. So our true learning and the foundation for greater success in life comes from knowledge applied through an evaluated experience, the outcome of which is wisdom.
Interestingly, we rarely choose to learn from success either. It often takes failure for our eyes to open (although many people fail to learn from failure too). I’ve seen many leaders in business carry out a detailed post mortem on a failed contract opportunity, which is a very useful exercise, yet rarely have I seen them do the same on a successful one. If you aren’t willing to also learn from your successes then how on Earth can you expect to replicate them in the future?
Once again, it’s a perception problem, and it’s not the only one. Failure has become a dirty word for many people, yet failure is a necessary component of success. You need to experience what’s not right in order to understand what is.
That’s why the journey of successful entrepreneurs is littered with failures, some of them catastrophic by many people’s standards. And yet what differentiated those successful few was that they understood the process, dusted themselves down, assessed where it went wrong, adjusted their though processes and behaviors, and got on with it. They understood that success is not a consequence of what you have but who you are, the purpose of failure is to help you grow in order to become the person worthy of the success you intend for your life. It’s a truth that applies to every aspect of life, from boardroom negotiations to personal relationships.
Failure is the most potent form of learning there is. Sadly, most people attempt to avoid it by not making decisions, scared of the risk. Growth cannot occur in the absence of risk. Ironically, by avoiding failure, they’re already experiencing it, they’re just not aware of the fact and consequently, not learning in the process. Failure is not in the falling down; it’s in the staying down. That is why I say in the interest of your success, I hope you fail.
March 10th, 2010 at 9:34 pm
Christian,
Right you are my friend. I have been “Failing” much of late and growing. I love this: “the purpose of failure is to help you grow in order to become the person worthy of the success you intend for your life. Besides even the word SUCCESS holds this secret, the first four letters are SUCC or “SUCK” as it were.
Jasper
March 25th, 2010 at 8:38 am
So very true, if you dont know bad, how will you know whats good? There is also another aspect to failure. When you fail you seem to loose everything, but in the process you also loose your fear, what is there to fear when you have nothing else to loose? This lack of fear empowers you to do things daringly and take chances, bringing you the success that fear of failure may have restricted.
April 15th, 2010 at 6:01 pm
I cannot agree with this statement enough. I have studied Bob Proctor and continue to revise his methods. It’s easy to forget these lessons and continue to make the same mistakes.
Repetition is the key law of learning. I have failed many times, but take each failure as an opportunity to revise and re-group; it’s touch, but positivity is vital to success.
July 21st, 2010 at 2:40 pm
You must have too much free time