Failure Is A Opportunity, Not A Curse

So why not make the most of it

There isn’t a person alive or dead that has not suffered a failure. It is one of the things that no one is immune to and everyone tries to avoid at all costs.

Let’s face it, failure hurts, it’s demoralizing, depressing, it causes us to doubt ourselves and our abilities and leads us to question our way forward. Most people, given time, are able to move on and put it behind them, though in extreme cases, failure can lead to much darker actions.

Personal Experience

I, like many of you, have suffered a lifetime of failures. My much younger self was a business owner running an I.T. consulting business. I was good at the work, I was a more than a competent programmer, I knew networks and how to configure and manage them, and I was good at customer relations.

What I wasn’t good at was committing myself to the business and managing the money. I was young (I started the business in my late teens) and still hadn’t grown up enough to put my career and future ahead of my leisure time.

I wanted to go out and party and have a good time, and owning my own business afforded me the luxury to do this. I was the boss and no one could tell me what I could and could not do. Boy was I wrong.

What did this immature attitude of mine cause? The answer I’m sure is no surprise, the business failed. Eventually, the clients dried up and as a result, the money stopped coming in. You can’t run a business with no clients or money so I did what any self-respecting individual would do, — I got a “real” job.

This was an incredibly painful time for me. As they say, hindsight is 20/20. In retrospect, I could have avoided this failure had I had the discipline and ambition to realize it at the time, but as with most things in our youth, we have to learn the hard way. To this day I still strive to be self-employed and even though I’m now in my late 50’s the desire is just as strong as it was when I was in my late teens and early 20's.

I bring this example from my own life up because I did what I believe people should do when confronted with failure, I took it to heart and learned from it. The much older me knows exactly what went wrong and what was to blame for it, — it was me. I was to blame for the failure through my lack of discipline, my carelessness with money, and my poor work ethic. These things are all a recipe for disaster. I won’t make these mistakes again.

Conclusion

At this point in my life, if I had to do it over again, I would likely be much more successful. I have a strong work ethic, I know how to manage money, I know that success requires dedication and perseverance in the face of adversity.

I’m also at a place in life where I realize that I don’t know everything, nor can I be an expert at everything, so in those cases, I’ve come to understand that I either need to educate myself or get help from others. There is no shame in asking for help.

What I’m getting at is that failure should be used as a stepping stone to success. Don’t mourn the failures, instead take them to heart and turn them into learning experiences. The lessons they teach can be invaluable. They will make you stronger, teach you what not to do in the future, and allow you to move on toward greatness.

Don’t let life’s failures destroy you. Failure is a temporary condition if you make it so. Learn all you can from them and you will come out better and stronger on the other side.

Thank you for taking the time to read this piece, and if you have any comments, they would be most welcome.

Until next time…