6 ways to Turn Failure into Success

Sometimes I think that failure is often the most important step on any road to Success.   Among many things, failure is a perception, a mindset,  & an opinion. I think the only way we can truly fail is to give up completely, crawl under a rock and never return.  I don't think I'm the only one who has had those days ;)

How do we still manage to stay in the race, when we feel we're losing? I don't have THE answer, but I can share some other inspirational thoughts highlighted with some amazing stories of incredible & successful people

I’m gonna start with 2 of my favorite creative geniuses…..

1. Follow your heart and your vision

+Walt Disney was fired by a newspaper editor for lack of ideas.  Disney also went bankrupt several times before he built Disneyland.

+Beethoven handled the violin awkwardly and preferred playing his own compositions instead of improving his technique. His teacher
called him hopeless as a composer.

 2. Sometimes, it takes being Different to really make a Difference 
+Charles Darwin, father of the theory of evolution, gave up a medical career and was told by his father, "You care for nothing but shooting, dogs, and rat catching." In his autobiography, Darwin wrote, "I was considered by my father, a very ordinary boy, rather below the common standard in intellect

+Albert Einstein did not speak until he was four years old and didn't read until he was seven. His teacher described him as "mentally slow, unsociable and adrift forever in his foolish dreams." He was expelled and refused admittance to Zurich Polytechnic School. The University of Bern turned down his Ph.D. dissertation as being irrelevant and fanciful.

 3.  Remember You Can’t Win if You Don’t Play the Game
+Babe Ruth, considered by sports historians to be the greatest athlete of all time and famous for setting the home run record, also holds the record for strikeouts.

4.  Don’t be afraid to TRY AGAIN!
+Dr. Seuss' first children's book, And to Think That I Saw it on Mulberry Street, was rejected by twenty-seven publishers.  The twenty-eighth publisher, Vanguard Press, sold six million copies of the book.

+Margaret Mitchell's classic Gone with the Wind was turned down by more than twenty-five publishers.

5.  The most important opinion is the one you hold of yourself          
Other people are always going to have opinions about your abilities
-both good & bad!

+In 1954, Jimmy Denny, manager of the Grand Ole Opry, fired Elvis Presley after one performance. He told Presley, "You ain't goin' nowhere… son. You ought to go back to drivin' a truck." Elvis Presley went on to become the most popular singer in America.

+After Fred Astaire's first screen test, the memo from the testing director of MGM, dated 1933, said, "Can't act! Slightly bald! Can dance a little!" Astaire kept that memo over the fireplace in his Beverly Hills home.

 6.  Don’t ignore the reality that we still always need to keep improving 
Sometimes failure highlights our weaknesses and shows us the places that we need to develop - allow it to motivate you!

+When NFL running back Herschel Walker was in junior high school, he wanted to play football, but the coach told him he was too small. He advised young Herschel to go out for track instead. He ignored the coach's advice and began an intensive training program to build himself up. Only a few years later, Herschel Walker won the Heisman trophy.

 Sometimes, failure gives us an opportunity to look at things more deeply & find ways to become stronger. So don’t be afraid to keep on trying!
WHAT ARE SOME OF YOUR FAVORITE SUCCESS STORIES?

May you take the time, have the courage and perseverance to follow your dreams, even in the midst of disappointment, criticism and occasional failed attempts….

Love and Blessings to you!
Meredith

(Stories adapted from   http://bit.ly/JzeRdh )

Comments

Popular Posts