In my freshman year of college, I heard a student make a comment in class about failing, “Failures are simply life’s tuition.” My first impression was, “that’s interesting.” As I began to think about it and as life continued, I began to look at it and what it meant for me in my life. Up until that point I had taken on the attitude of, “I have succeeded in everything I have tried so far, so I can’t fail.” What I didn’t understand was that our failures are some of the best tools for self-development.

In school, I pay tuition to learn processes that others have developed after failing with attempts at other methods. In science, you learn what other men have learned from their continued failures and who eventually got it right. So  for failures in real life to actually help us out, we must have the right mentality. That mentality requires us to look back on our failures and understand why that way didn’t work and how we are going to adapt in order to find success. If you fail and never understand why or were unsuccessful in learn anything from it, than you truly did fail. However, if your failure taught you something very important about the field you are engaged in, than your failure has just become a success. Now you can retry and with the additional knowledge gained from that failure, you will succeed. With each additional failure our chances to succeed the next time we try increase greatly.

You must also understand that failures may be recurring; meaning that they don’t just happen once and then you are all of the sudden successful. You must adapt and learn from failures until you have weeded out all the ways how NOT to do what you are trying to do. This reminds me of the story of Thomas Edison. He failed 700 (the myth seems to put this more in the range of 1000 but I think 700 was more realistic) times in his effort to make a functioning incandescent light bulb and when asked why he never gave up, he replied, “I have not failed 700 times. I have not failed once. I have succeeded in proving that those 700 ways will not work. When I have eliminated the ways that will not work, I will find the way that will work.” I feel like it’s a cliché story but the lesson it teaches is invaluable in the sphere of entrepreneurship.

Enjoy your successes and endure your failures because true dedication is only displayed after the challenge has been subdued. Learn and adapt from all your failures and you will lead a successful life.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.