How many times have you observed a most excited and motivated individual or group get exposed to a good idea or opportunity, get all fired up bout the potential of the opportunity,…get involved in it,..give it a good honest albeit short-term sporadic effort…..and then, all too soon give up and quit their pursuit of their dreams and goals because of some type of failure? Oh the reasons or causes of such a failed attempt usually are many and lengthy ones. They usually go something like this….Failure…..things didn’t work out as was initially thought,…or the results we thought we would achieve just didn’t materialize,…or things were just taking far too long to develop….on and on and on….excuse after excuse after excuse…….
There is one unalterable fact that surrounds all successful people in the world. That fact is that all lasting success is built upon a foundation of failure. If you are not willing to try and fail, then try again and fail, and try again and keep on trying until you finally succeed,……then you just simply are not ready to become successful. Period!! Are my words too strong,….too tough,….too much truth?
Here are two facts:
1. The Foundation of Success is the willingness to fail.
2. All Success is built upon failure after failure after failure.
Failure does not mean the end. Quite the contrary,….Failure is actually the Beginning. Starting over is the watchword for all of the great successes through out human history.
Failure gives you a new opportunity to start over,….to try again,….only this time to try smarter than you did the first time.
Failure is a benchmark of forward progress for the achieving of your own dreams or goals. That is why truly successful people define success as the progressive realization of a worthwhile dream or goal. Success is really a process. It occurs over an extended period of time. It is eventually reached or achieved after long-term consistently and persistently applied effort and resources.
All throughout your attempts to achieve your dreams and goals, you will battle and fight against opposition, ridicule and criticism. These type battles must be fought if you are to ever reach certain levels of accomplishment or personal growth. The battleground for these fights for survival will be within your own mind. Mental toughness is going to be a absolute requirement is you ever plan to succeed.
If ever you plan to win,…to reach your chosen success,…then you must always be battle ready. If you intend to win the battle then you must get up every time you get knocked down. Winning you see, is no more than this …to get up, every time you get knocked down. If it is your personal desire to win,…to become successful, then quitting cannot ever be an option.
I once was told by a very successful and wealthy man, my mentor, Ron, that “Winners, i.e. successful men or women, make a lot of money and they make a lot of things happen……Losers, well they only make a lot of excuses.”
So the question begs to be asked…..Which one are you? The correct answer will be born out through the actions you take….not the words you speak.
Former President, Dwight David Eisenhower, attended the U.S. Army Military Academy at West Point. While enrolled there, one of his physical training activities was boxing. His boxing coach gave him some extremely sound advice as regards winning a boxing match. The same advice can be just as soundly applied to the world of business generally and the world of success specifically. Cadet Eisenhower was told: “If you can’t smile when you get up from a knock down punch…..you are never going to lick an opponent!”
Sadly, in a vast majority of cases, when ever a person gets knocked down by negative circumstances, disagreements, arguments or violent opposition, they just lay there in their own misery and complain. They moan, groan, and place blame or find fault with some one or some thing other than themselves. Why?….the answer is simple….whenever it is someone else’s fault, you exempt yourself from personal responsibility to get up and do something about correcting the situation!
Permit me to remind you that whenever you place the blame on someone else, for your own predicament or situation, you immediately lose control of the situation. You immediately sacrifice your own ability to resolve the issue, solve the problem, or correct the situation.
Whenever you place the blame on another person for anything negative that is happening in your life, then it is no longer up to you to solve this dilemma by your own decisions and actions. By placing the blame on someone else you have personally lost or given away control of the situation to do something about solving it. Not a good thing to do at all!
All good leaders know well that regardless of who or what caused the problem,…the leader will always take the blame for it. That way the leader maintains control of the situation. Consequently he can then take control of the necessary actions to correct the negative situation.
Now, of course, there will never be any success without a leader. The leader builds the team, and the team builds a successful organization. The greater the leader, the greater will be the organization. The exact opposite can also be said of a smaller organization.
Once the building of a successful, beneficial, and godly dream or goal begins, then you can readily expect the enemy’s negative forces of evil to immediately start coming against it.
Failure may start to occur. Members of the team may begin to quit or leave the work site. Goals may start being missed. Production may begin to drop off. Folks who previously pledged their enduring commitment and support may fall away. The “wheels”of the organization may appear to be coming off……
You might begin to doubt or wonder why you are doing what it is that you are doing…… That is precisely when the knock-down punch gets thrown. When it lands and knocks you to the floor…..Do Not Lay There! GET UP….SMILE… and… Dust Yourself Off and Start All Over Again. Failure is the foundation of all Success.
Peace and Love to all of you…Poppa Bear