|
Home / Personal Development
Failure Precedes Success!
By:Max Ng
There is this Chinese Saying that literally translates to "Failure Is The Mother Of Success!". Basically, it means that failure is like a mother who will give birth to success. A more proper way to phrase it will be failure precedes success. Usually, it is use to encourage someone who have just encountered a failure or setback in life. It helps to remind the person that one will definitely need to go through the experience of failures before one can succeed.
Though I heard of this saying numerous times during my upbringing, I never really realized the full meaning of the saying. Actually, there is another way to interpret the saying. If I want to succeed quickly, I need to experience as many failures as possible in the shortest possible time.
Why? Each failure is due to a mistake or a combination of mistakes. If I can learn from my mistakes, I will improve in whatever I am trying doing. When I experience failure faster, it simply means that I have made mistakes quicker. This gives me the opportunity to learn from my mistakes earlier. And I will improve faster. At this fast rate of learning from mistakes, my success will be nearer.
This reminds me of my experience on trying to learn to ride a bicycle while I was a teenager. Of course, I did not manage to balance myself on the very first attempt. In fact, I had lost my balance numerous times and injured myself. But I did not give up because I knew that I was improving with each failed attempt. This is because I was learning from my mistakes.
Somewhere along my life, I have forgotten about this simple principle that in order to success, I need to go through failures and learn from my mistakes. Like everyone else, I have my dreams. But I am afraid to pursue my dreams because I am afraid of failure. This fear of failure causes me to procrastinate on pursuing my dreams. If I had recalled that principle early, I would have taken actions to pursue my dreams sooner. How did I manage to remember this principle again? Well, the Rich Dad series reminded me of such a principle.
Why does understanding that principle help me to overcome the fear of failure? Basically, there is a shift in perception on the value of failure. I used to associate failure with no value or negative value.
If I fail in whatever I am trying to do, people will look down on me. That is how I perceive failure. With the paradigm shift that failure benefit me positively so that I can succeed faster, the fear of failure is reduced.
Other than the paradigm shift, I have adopted additional steps to enhance my chance of success in whatever I am trying to achieve. Firstly, I will focus on my goal instead of my fears. If my goal is to learn ice-skating, I do not focus on the dangers of falling and injuring myself. That is I do not imagine the fears of falling and the pains from the injuries before they have really happened. Instead, I focus on mastering the skill properly so that I do not fall and injure myself.
Secondly, I leverage on my past success experience. If I can successful perform a fire walking, then I definitely can master ice-skating since fire walking is a much difficult task. Well, if you do not have such a special experience like fire walking, what can you leverage on? The answer is the mastery of walking. It is a common success experience that everyone can leverage on except the handicap.
Have you ever wonder how you had mastered walking as a child? Can you recall that? Walking is a difficult skill to master as a child. But we have done it through trials and errors with the encouragement of our parents and loved ones. Since we can learn to walk, we definitely can learn other skills or do other difficult tasks if we put our heart and mind into doing so.
Thirdly, I will leverage on the experience of people who had already mastered it or done it before. The best way is to get a coach to guide and teach me. But if I cannot find a coach, then the next best alternative is learned from books, videos and audio courses.
Lastly, I will come out with an actionable plan with quantified milestones to measure my progress. By constantly checking my progress against my plan, I will be forced to reflect on my actions. What have I done incorrectly that causes the delay in my progress? What can I do to correct the situation?
With all the above steps in place, my fear of failure is greatly reduced. My chance of success is greatly enhanced.
* DISCLAIMER *
The author, publisher and distributors particularly disclaim any liability, loss, or risk taken by individuals who directly or indirectly act on the information contained herein. All readers must accept full responsibility for their use of this material.
Digg
del.icio.us
Blink
Stumble
Spurl
Reddit
Netscape
Furl
Article keywords: rich dad, success, failure
Article Source: http://www.articles2k.com
Max Ng shares about his struggle for financial freedom at http://www.richdadsecrets4me.com
Get a free sample of his book "Your Greatest Gift! Why Waste It?" at http://www.yourgreatestgift.com
|
|
| Top Personal Development Articles |
- 1). What To Do When Your Fears And Worries Overwhelm You By : Stan Popovich
What do you do when your worries and anxieties overwhelm you? Here is a brief list of techniques that a person can use to help manage their worries and anxieties.
Sometimes what we fear may happen can be overly exaggerated. A lot of times, our worrying can make the problem even worse. Remember that all the worrying in the world will not change anything.
|
- 2). Stuttering And Stammering Speech Impediment By : blueboy
Stammering or as it is sometimes known as stuttering is a form of speech impediment.
My name is Stephen Hill and I had a stammer for eighteen years. I went to various types of speech therapy which even though was of some use, never really offered me any hope of a "cure".
At the age of twenty two, after a lot of hard work I managed to overcome the stammer and I now help other people to achieve fluency.
|
- 3). The first 14 dominant laws of the subconscious mind By : Emmanuel Segui
Copyright 2006 Emmanuel Segui
The subconscious mind is fascinating and intriguing. Yet, it is challenging to understand how it works so you can use its full power solve our problems and enhance every aspect of your life.
Here are the difficult principles of the subconscious mind made very easy so you can apply them in your life today and see results tomorrow.
|
- 4). Stop Fear Now By : Denton Krypps
I'm convinced that fear is one of the worst things in life. Think about all of the negative ways that fear affects your life. Think about all of the decisions you make or do not make because of fear in your life. Or think about the risks that you do not take or the relationships you do not pursue because of fear. You would do well to take a good look at the fears in your life and to attempt to tackle them head first until they are no longer fears.
|
|
|
- 6). Avoiding Your Persistent Fears Will Not Make Them Go Away By : Stan Popovich
Your fears, anxieties, and other problems have the best of you and you don’t know where to turn for help. At some point you feel totally helpless as you struggle each day. What do you do?
As a layman and an author of a Managing Fear book, there were times that my fears had the best of me. Through these experiences, there is one thing that I learned.
|
- 7). Success After Failure - Even Genghis Khan Lost Some Early Battles By : John Watson
Both the worst and the best of the great achievers had the belief in themselves and the resilience to overcome early failures. One of these was none other than Genghis Khan. There are powerful lessons we can learn from him.
In 1162 a child, called Temujin, was born in Mongolia clutching a blood clot - a sign that he was destined to be a great warrior.
|
- 8). Crisis Management: The Most Basic Of Needs By : Sandy Baker
Crisis management is something that every individual needs to consider. Whether you are preparing yourself for a crisis situation or if you are responsible for a school full of children, it is necessary to be prepared. There are excellent resources to help you do this and it also helps to take a good look at your individual situation. There are many types of crisis management situations and we will discuss that here.
|
- 9). Being the Mountain By : Judy Ringer
As I hiked up the path to the Peaceful Valley Chapel, I relished the quiet of my early morning solitude. After many years as a participant and assistant instructor at Thomas Crum's Journey To Center Program, this beautiful and energizing ten-minute hike had become a personal ritual. Each morning of each Journey to Center week, before our breathing and meditation session at 7, I always hike to the top of this small mountain to be inspired by the view of a much higher mountain range in the distance.
|
- 10). What Causes People To Develop A Speech Impediment? By : blueboy
I am one of many people who are unfortunate enough to develop a speech impediment in childhood. This article describes why these impediments may occur and how I went about achieving fluency. For the purpose of this article, I concentrate on the speech impediment known as stuttering.
There are many reasons why people may develop a stutter, it can be.
|
| New Personal Development Articles |
- 1). Achieve Emotional Freedom By : ian Williamson
Emotional Freedom Techniques, or EFT as it is most commonly known, is probably the most popular of a group of techniques collectively referred to as Energy Psychology (EP)
|
|
|
- 3). Are You Really Making Decisions? By : Garry Zancanaro
There is a massive difference between hoping and wishing for success, happiness, self improvement, or that something will change in our lives, and actively deciding to make changes to our lives.
|
- 4). Why Self Improvement Is Important - Part 1 By : Garry Zancanaro
An alarming percentage of people spend most of what they earn and many also have large debts. They are often no more that a few paydays away from bankruptcy and have little, if anything, put aside for emergencies, much less for a comfortable retirement.
|
|
|
- 6). Dealing With Frustration By : Garry Zancanaro
We all suffer from frustration, and being able to effectively deal with frustration is a very important skill to develop. It can be a decisive factor between success and failure.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
- 10). To Move Forward You Have To Be Able To Bounce Back! By : Garry Zancanaro
Successful people are also disappointed and affected by setbacks, and certainly get knocked down more often than most, if only because they try more things. This may happen not once or twice, but dozens or even hundreds of times. But successful people refuse to stay down - because they are resilient and will not be denied their dreams and goals.
|
|
|
