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Failing to Succeed – The Truth Behind Every Success Story.

Posted on 16. Jun, 2009 by Andrew in Mindset

With the events that took place for me during the weekend I thought it would be a great opportunity to share my views on what I believe to be the truth behind every success story you have, or ever will hear about.

What is success and how do you know if you have achieved it?

Success only comes to those who can accept failure as an important part of the journey. Brian Tracey says ‘Success is the acceptance of mediocrity’. When I first heard this statement many years ago it took me quite a long time to fully understand the true meaning behind it. I found that I questioned the merit behind the statement. After all, most successful people that you hear about or read about appear to be far from mediocre. In fact when you study these people what you begin to feel, at first, is that the are very unique and gifted individuals. However that is simply not the case.

The most successful person in the world (whoever you believe that is) is just the same as you and I. Sure they may come from a different financial or cultural environment. They may have an ivy league education or not. Either way their background is not entirely relevant. All that is relevant is that the person accepted that in order to become successful they must be prepared for failure. They must learn from those failings and they must find opportunity in the lessons they have learned.

For me this video is so inspiring and thought provoking. Take a few minutes to watch this. 

For me, Thomas Edison was the greatest ever advocate of mediocrity. As the story goes, when Edison was working on the electric light bulb he had made over 4000 attempts which all failed miserably. Either the filament would burn out, or the glass would melt or explode, or the current was too high or too low. Along his journey he accepted and was quoted as declaring that he was in no way any more gifted or special than any other person. His colleagues, peers, and investors all at some point had made comments stating that he would never succeed.

‘I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.‘
Thomas A. Edison

Well as we all know today the Edison General Electric Company was one of the greatest and most revered technology companies of its day. But what was the true and underlying factor behind that success? Never give up, never give in. Seek new opportunity even in you failures. Never fear failure for fear itself is crippling in any form.

So what are the truths behind success? Let me list them for you here.

  1. Belief. Napolean Hill says it best. What the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve. You must have a total belief in yourself, your abilities and your purpose.
  2. Acceptance of mediocrity. I covered this already but to define it. Accept that you have the same abilities and opportunities as anyone else. Its what you chose to do with them that makes the difference.
  3. Expectation. Along with belief and acceptance, you must have the expectation of success. You must completely subscribe to the belief that even though today you may not have achieved your desired result, that in due course, with belief, commitment and perseverance you will find a way to make it work. Just like Edison, Honda, Richard Branson and so many more.
  4. Persistence. This is probably the greatest factor of all. Persist even in the face of adversity or failure. As they say at Honda, it doesn’t matter how many times you fail, just persist until that 1 time you get it right.

If you take nothing else from me, my blog, or my posts, take just this. The only thing that stands between you and your success is YOU!

Finally if you have kids, and you want them to have success in their lives then start teaching them these philosophies. Buy yourself a copy of the movie ‘Meet the Robinsons’. It’s a great little film and the message it delivers to your children is something they will take with them throughout their lives. ‘Keep Moving Forward’

To Your Success!

Andrew.

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3 Responses to “Failing to Succeed – The Truth Behind Every Success Story.”

  1. Failing to Succeed - The Truth Behind Every Success Story. « Honda

    16. Jun, 2009

    [...] View original here: Failing to Succeed – The Truth Behind Every Success Story. [...]

  2. J Bode

    17. Jun, 2009

    Hey Andrew

    This is great, I like that you listed them out at the bottom.

    I’m going to try to put all these together and take action on improving in each one of these areas. I think the fact that you combined them all together is great!

    I’ve never considered the combination of all of these factors, but gave some importance to each one of them.

    I also believe that failures are a learning experience… you learn from your mistake and that opens new doors for success.

    Thanks again this was really helpful,

    J Bode

  3. Andrew

    17. Jun, 2009

    Hi, I’m glad you could take something away from this. I used to think like you as well. Keeping each aspect separated in my mind. None of the individual aspects will work alone but combined them and you become an unstoppable force.

    Have a great day.
    Andrew