Failing to Success

For the longest I've wanted to run my own business. Working for other people in an industry that's so insecure and unsteady is so frightening and eye-opening, especially when you see other people struggling to make ends meet. What an economy we live in.

This is why I've decided to really put all of my ideas into action and take that step forward towards my business goals. I've been putting it off for so long and for no good reason. All because of fear of failure. The thing is, you can't succeed in anything if you are afraid to take a risk. Life and success is all about risk. Many of those successful people you read about in books and see on TV all took risks and failed many times, but they kept getting back up and trying again. That is why they are so successful today...they allowed themselves to fail many times and eventually turned those failures into success.



Failure, in my opinion builds character, strength and persistence. It weeds out the strong from the weak and conditions them for success. Everyone fails at something, however it's the strong who stay determined in the midst of failure and keep trying. To me, the true definition of success is someone who goes to ride a bicycle and falls down, but gets back on it anyway knowing that they will fall again. It's that same person who will go on to ride like a pro and end up doing crazy tricks on a motorcycle.

Here is a case of two athletes. Both are runners with a goal to run a mile in under 6 minutes. The first couple times they run the mile, their time is just under 8 minutes. Did they succeed in their goal? No, they failed. One guy believes he will never be able to run a 6 minute mile because his current mile time was too high, so he decides to quit. The other guy, however decides he is not giving up with out a fight. So he trains day after day, night after night. After 2 months, his mile time is at 7 minutes. Did he succeed yet? No, still failed. He continues to practice and train again for another 3 months until finally he is able to run a mile in 5 minutes and 45 seconds. Did he succeed? Yes. After 5 months of consistently failing, he finally succeeds at his goal. In his case, failure brought him to success. If he hadn't have failed all those times in his run, he would have never built his endurance, strength and stamina and conditioned his body to run a 6 minute mile. The real failure is the person that refuses to get back up after falling down.

Anything that's worth having in life is not easy to attain. To reach our goals and get what we want, many times we have to risk our time, money, temporary gratification and pride. This reason alone prevents a lot of people from achieving their goals.

I don't want to be one of those people who missed out on life just because I was afraid of failure...afraid to take a risk. I have to face my fears and go for the goal.

Sometimes you have to sacrifice some things, set your pride aside and practice delayed gratification so that you can reach the bigger gratification in life.