Anyone that has ever stood on the mountaintop of success has also laid in the valley of defeat. Success is not an overnight miracle. It is achieved through hours, months, and years of working at your craft while you drudge through pain and negativity at every turn of the corner.
Before you begin your path to success you need to understand that you will fail at some point. This is an absolute truth and there is no way around it. With 100% certainty I can tell you that you will fail at some point as you pursue success. It may be a small failure like stuttering in an interview or it may be a large failure like losing your business.
“Overcoming the fear of failure is absolutely vital to success.”
The sooner you accept the fact that you will fail at some point along the way the quicker you can overcome the fear of failure. Overcoming the fear of failure is absolutely vital to success because if you fear failure you will be too afraid to move forward. And moving forward despite the challenges and failures is how you succeed.
As my man Rocky Balboa said, “It ain’t about how hard you can hit, it’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. It’s how much you can take, and keep moving forward. That’s how winning is done!”
“The path to success is a war, with failure only being a few lost battles.”
Of course you don’t set out to fail, but it is an inevitable fact for those that take their shot. I’m a winner and I don’t intend to fail when I set a goal but I know that failure is just part of the process. You know who doesn’t fail? People who don’t try, people who sit on their couch dreaming about what could have been if they had only taken a chance.
But failure isn’t permanent. That is very important to know. Let’s say it again – failure isn’t permanent. No matter how big or small, failure is simply a bump in the road – as long as you don’t let it stop you. You have to keep going when failure stands in your way. You have to tackle that beast and run through it, no matter how much it hurts. The path to success is a war, with failure only being a few lost battles. The key is to quickly forget those battles and focus on winning the larger war.
“They walked through that dark valley, stared failure in the face, and said ‘You will not define me! I will not be stopped!’”
Those that we often label as “the most successful people in the world” have also been some of the greatest failures in the world. They were rejected, told “No”, fired, kicked out, and evicted. But, they did not let their failures stop them. They overcame and persevered and that is why we know them today as so successful. They did not become icons, billionaires, or celebrities without having sat in that dark corner with tears in their eyes questioning themselves about whether or not they really had what it took. The difference between them and others, the differentiator that eventually made them “the most successful people in the world”, is that they kept going when that dark moment hit. They walked through that dark valley, stared failure in the face, and said “You will not define me! I will not be stopped!”
Walt Disney was fired from one of his first jobs at the Kansas City Star newspaper because he “lacked imagination and had no good ideas”. Soon after that he owned a small animation studio that eventually went bankrupt. If Walt had quit after those failures no one would know the name Walt Disney today. It would be as meaningless as the name John Smith. But he persevered and created the greatest entertainment empire the world has ever seen.
While writing Harry Potter, JK Rowling endured the death of her mother, a failed marriage, and losing her job. She was living off of unemployment benefits and supporting her daughter by herself when she started sending out her manuscript, which was soundly rejected by 12 publishers. She herself said, “By every usual standard, I was the biggest failure I knew”. But her failures drove her, as she realized that her worst fears had come true and that they weren’t as bad as she imagined them to be. She kept pursuing her passion and eventually found a publisher willing to take a chance on her. The Harry Potter book series has gone on to be translated into 73 languages, sold millions of copies, and generated over $20 billion in revenue through various sources such as movies, licensing, etc.
Chrissy Metz, whom you may know as Kate Pearson from the wildly successful TV show This is Us, was unemployed, living off of credit cards, and eating a diet of ramen noodles from the dollar store while looking for acting work in Hollywood. She considered giving up her dream and moving back to Florida to live with her parents but she persevered and kept pushing forward. After many lost battles, Chrissy finally landed the dream role of Kate. When she booked the gig, she was living on a friend’s couch and had only $0.81 left in her bank account. $0.81!! She is now a breakout star on the #1 show on TV and even met her boyfriend on set.
Everyone that has ever been successful has failed! Think of all of the people that you view as successful – Michael Jordan, Steve Jobs, Warren Buffet, Wolfgang Puck, Oprah Winfrey, Cheryl Sandberg, Angela Merkel – they have all failed on multiple occasions. They failed because they tried, because they took their shot. And they succeeded because they overcame those failures and didn’t let them be the end of their story.
Take your shot and embrace the failure, knowing full well that it’s only power against you is if you let it end your story.