No one likes to fail. In fact, our education system has gone to great lengths to institutionalize the punishment of failure. They call it the grading system. When you fail in school, you get a failing grade. As a child, you are indoctrinated by the education system to see failure as a bad thing. Children who get bad grades, fail too much, could even get left back. This creates fear. So, we are taught by our teachers to fear failure and so we spend our entire adult lives avoiding risk because we fear failure.
But I learned from my Rich Habits study of 177 self-made millionaires that failure was the most direct path towards success. Failure forces you to change and grow. Sure, failure is painful, but the lessons you learn from failure stick. Failure leaves scar tissue on the brain. You never forget your failures. And that’s a good thing. Failure forces you to learn what to do and what not to do. When you fail, you are forced to learn what went wrong and then change what you are doing, making failure temporary. If you refuse to change, then that failure becomes permanent. Here are some things I discovered about failure from my study:
- Failure forces you to change your habits.
- Failure forces you to change your perception.
- Failure forces you to change who you associate with.
- Failure forces you to change your thinking.
- Failure teaches you to value and manage your time better.
- Failure teaches you how to deal with people.
- Failure forces you to manage your money better.
- Failure gives birth to insight and creativity.
- Failure makes you wiser.
- Failure increases awareness.
Those who fail become different people. The education you get from failure stays with you forever and becomes the foundation upon which you build future success. The more you fail, the stronger the foundation and the greater your success will be. In order to succeed you must vanquish the institutionalized belief that failure is something to be feared. Your teachers were wrong. Failure is the path to success.
About Thomas C. Corley
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