There is one word that describes the stepping stone walked by every man that sat at the table of success in human history. That word is a failure. Whether we like it or not, we will experience failure at one point or another in our lives. It’s essentially an inevitable prerequisite to success.
As good as that sounds, failure has equally been the reason some people never succeeded, and more will never succeed. They’re so scared of the name that they run for their lives when they smell failure. However, the others used it as a tool and thus succeeded in life.
That begets the conclusion that the proper perception of failure as a tool to learn and become a better person is the biggest difference between successful and unsuccessful people. However, when life pushes you around to situations that aren’t favourable, there is something it wants you to learn, and in this blog, we want to show how lessons failure teaches you.
Here Are the Lessons You Should Learn From Failure
The Art Of Not Giving Up
“Never give up” You might have heard that phrase a million times in your life that you thought you already had the trait. Well, the fact will show when you face failure and defeat. When we fail and fall, we will learn best the art of packing ourselves up and keeping going. Failure is your best source of learning resilience in the face of hardship.
You’ll love this quote from Michele Obama; “failure is an important part of your growth and developing resilience.”
Like building muscles, when you have failed to some extent trying to succeed, you’ll be so used to it that you barely feel threatened by the anticipation of failure anymore. And when that happens, you have a superpower to succeed at whatever you do because the biggest threat to success is now a pebble to yours. We all know that talking is cheap and experience is the best teacher. Until you experience failure, you won’t really know what it feels like and what it means to get up and try again.
Manage Your Risks
Another lessons failure teaches you is to manage your risks. The word “risk” has been overused, and thus, many have been confused. You see everyone telling you to take the risk, which is good. But there is more to it, and you won’t know until you fail. Risk is not actually meant to be admired or welcomed. It’s meant to be managed. As you go for your dreams, you must face some risks, right? What you should be doing is minimizing and managing that risk. You want to be doing everything to ensure and increase the odds of sources.
But even though you’ve learned this today, you probably still don’t get it. We learn this better when we fail. As your business makes plenty of sales but struggles to break even in net profit, you’ll quickly learn to manage the risk of bankruptcy. You might want to reduce costs, raise prices, improve products or even transcend to a new environment or innovation.
Flexibility
Often, we are resistant to change, which is a problem. As much as it is essential to keep your head straight and stay focused and resilient on your dream, it’s equally important to be flexible in your decisions and actions.
The world is always changing, and the rate at which you can spot a revolution and position yourself and your business to adapt and take advantage of it will determine your survival and wins in life.
When things change and don’t come as expected, it is those who can see the world ahead of others and take actions that will always win. What will happen to others? They’ll be left out of the success league.
However, there will still be times you’re caught off guard. How quickly can you adapt? How flexible are you in your decisions? These questions are vital. If you are too rigid and rarely want to change, failure is your best teacher. It’ll teach you to learn taking a better route when the one you’re in is antagonistic to your success.
The Need To Be Patient
The Need To Be PatientImpatient people always learn the art of patience the hard way – and that’s through failure. When you can’t wait patiently for your success tree to grow to the point of making good fruits, you’ll always cut it down before it ripens, thinking it’s a problem. Meanwhile, the problem is “You”. We all know that anything good takes time. But only a few have the courage to exercise that patience. Suppose you’re one of them, good luck. Those who are not will learn from failure.
As they rush through to get faster results, they’re breaking the universal rule, and the consequence is failure. With time you’ll realise the need to work hard and stay patiently on that one thing you’re building until you succeed. It’s another good thing failure will teach you if you fail to take the advice that the patient dog working tirelessly on its dream will eat the biggest bone.
Hellen Keller said it better. “We could never learn to be brave and patient if there is only joy in the world.”
Another Way Things Don’t Work
What a great man Thomas Eddison is. When he was asked about the ten thousand times he failed before succeeding with the bulb invention, his reply was amazing. “I have not failed ten thousand times – I’ve successfully found ten thousand ways that will not work”. This statement is the best explanation of one lesson only failure can teach.
As you fail and learn from it, you can avoid future mistakes that might lead to catastrophe. If you lose a thousand dollars to a Ponzi scheme today, the lessons you learn might save you from losing your life savings in the future. The same goes for business and other areas of life. Early defeat shows you how to avoid doing things in the future so you can win.
Choose Your Path Wisely
Do you know that one guy that doesn’t think before he acts? He does things rashly and seldom assesses his actions. Wait until he fails miserably and see how he turns out in a new life. The best time we learn the importance of making rational decisions is when we fail.
As you move forward, you realize that every choice you make comes with a consequence. You evaluate the aftermath of each action and decision and see if the risk is something acceptable in your life. And that will help you become a better decision-maker in the future.
A good example of this is a stock investment. When you lose to market downfall or company failure, you learn to do your due diligence and what to look out for before committing your fortune to any business.
Humility
Another lessons failure teaches you is to become humble. It’s easy to think we are wise when things are going well. You know that feeling that it’s your hard work and the right decisions that brought about the success. As business is booming, you see yourself on top of the world and everyone else as a fool. This is the situation of most people until the bubble bursts and challenges set in. When the success we boast of yesterday becomes defeat, we learn best that we’re not invisible and there is no end to knowledge and intelligence. If you want to know this best, check the speech of the most successful people on success. They’re not always sure. They only give their thoughts, not any unbreakable laws. They’ve failed so much that they realize you cannot always be correct.
BONUS
A New Path To Take
Defeat and failure are your chance to learn and rise above your feet. You can choose to make it a source of learning if you fix your perception in the right way. When you fall, you discover the wrong path to not take and how not to do things. If you address failure with an open mind, you will see that there is always something to learn – the likes of which no mentor or teacher could have taught you.
It can open you to a new discovery or path that will forever transform your life. It’s a way to make you stronger. As you proceed into life, let’s give you a quote that could summarise all it takes to succeed.
“Men who experience the most failure, take responsibility, learn from it and apply it moving forward without turning back become the biggest winners in life”. Keep that in your mind, and shall soon become one of them.
If you enjoy this blog, kindly give it a thumbs up and share it for others to also benefit. Remember to signup to our newsletter so that you don’t miss out on any of our blogs. What is the biggest lesson failure has ever taught you? We’d love to know in the comment section. You can check out also our previous posts about the “17 Lessons Only Success Can Teach You“. See you in our next blog.
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Learn from failures 🙌