The Fear of Failure
At some point, everyone will experience the feeling of failure. Most of us will experience this feeling multiple times throughout life to various degrees, but it is up to us in how we see our failure. We can view it as being “the end of the world,” or we can look upon it as a learning experience. There is always a lesson to be learned which can ultimately help us to grow, and hopefully, stop us from making that same mistake again. The more we fail the more lessons we learn and the stronger we become.
Overcoming Failure
So things didn’t go as you planned. What next?
- Accept how you feel, be what you are thinking and feeling. This will help you let it go faster in the long run.
- Think about what you have learned from the situation and what you will do differently next time.
- Don’t get stuck mulling over the situation for too long, move on as quick as you can.
- Improve your self-esteem. Remember that anything worth doing in life comes with risk. You are not a failure because you were brave.
A little failure can do wonders to our future success, as seen in the famous examples below.
Famous examples of how failure can lead to success
We all know good things come to those who work, but sometimes even thats not enough. That doesn’t mean you should stop, it just means you need to keep going and keep trying. No one knows this better than the following women who you might be surprised to hear struggled before becoming as successful as they are today.
Vera Wang
Vera Wang wasn’t always destined to become a designer extraordinaire. Wang was once a competitive figure skater who just missed out on making the Olympic team. It was only then that she decided to pursue a career in fashion, taking on a job as an assistant at Vogue in 1971. Within a year, at the age of 23, she was promoted to senior fashion editor. She spent over 15 years with the magazine but was eventually passed over for the role of editor-in-chief. This blow to her career was a blessing in disguise as it allowed her to become the incredibly successful fashion designer she is today. A Vera Wang wedding dress is something almost all brides lust for.
J.K. Rowling
J.K Rowling wrote Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone as a struggling single mother on welfare. She was diagnosed with clinical depression and described her economic status as being as “poor as it is possible to be in modern Britain, without being homeless.” She faced 12 rejections from publishers before finally getting the green light in with Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone being published in 1997. The rest is history. From numerous sales records, successful film series and a theme park. J.K. Rowling is now worth an estimated $1 billion and her books will forever hold a special place in many peoples hearts.
“Failure is so important. We speak about success all the time. It is the ability to resist failure or use failure that often leads to greater success. I’ve met people who don’t want to try for fear of failing.” – J.K. Rowling
Arianna Huffington
Arianna has said that her failures are key to her success. She started her career as a co-host on a late night talk show but was dropped after just 12 editions. The first book that she wrote was well-received, but it was her second book that got rejected by 36 publishers! Arianna recently told CNN, “You can recognise very often that out of these projects that may not have succeeded themselves that other successes are built.” She is now the author of 13 books as well as the President and Editor-in-Chief of the well known Huffington Post Media Group.
Oprah Winfrey
Every now and then we will all stumble and fall. Doors might get closed in our faces, we might make a bad decision or we might take some bad advice. But imagine if these women had given up, imagine where they would be, or not be today.
Think of the opportunities we might miss if we let our failures stop us.
Quotes
“It’s failure that gives you the proper perspective on success.” – Ellen DeGeneres
“What seems to us as bitter trials are often blessings in disguise.” – Oscar Wilde
“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” – Winston Churchill
“If you don’t try at anything, you can’t fail… it takes backbone to lead the life you want” – Richard Yates
“Success is most often achieved by those who don’t know that failure is inevitable.” – Coco Chanel
“Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.” – Robert F. Kennedy
