I was in Houston, Texas not too long ago and I was sitting at the breakfast table with about 10 other people in my mother-in-law’s home.  To my right was an aspiring singer, the rest of the table was occupied by family members.

Someone at the table asked the aspiring singer, why haven’t you gone on “American Idol” (the reality television show that discovers new singing talent).  Her response inspired me to write this article today.

She said, I don’t want to go on American Idol, because I don’t want to be rejected, I know that I am a “good” singer, I don’t need them (referring to the judges) critiquing me.

What’s wrong with this answer? She is essentially saying that she doesn’t want to go on American Idol, because she doesn’t want to fail.

The founder of IBM, when asked how to be successful said, “Double your failure rate.”

I believe the path to success is paved with bricks of failure and mortar of rejection. To say, I don’t want to fail, is to say, I don’t want to succeed.

I believe the key to success is failure.  There’s a quote that goes something like, success is going from failure to failure without losing motivation.

When I first started my vending business, I failed, and I failed, and I failed, before seeing any progress…this blog (which is about 2 ½ months old) has gone from one failure to another…but each failure is taking me closer to success. With each failure I’m a little wiser.  Henry Ford said, “Failure is the opportunity to begin again more intelligently.”  There is something to learn from every failure.  Failure is great feedback!

My plan for this blog is to experience a little failure everyday.  With enough of these failures I will succeed.

Failure is the bridge to success; you should fail often and you should fail forward.

When I’m done writing this article I’m headed to the gym.  What’s my plan every time I lift weights?  You guessed it, failure.  Muscle failure is necessary in order to grow bigger muscles.  Failure is always my first goal.

We must quit thinking that “failure” is a bad word.  Failure is training, and training is necessary.

Thomas Edison failed 10,000 times before he invented the electric light bulb, but he didn’t see it as a bad thing.  He just said, “I’ve just found 10,000 ways that don’t work.”  This has to be our attitude.

When you’re a child and you’re learning to walk, you’re going to fail; when you’re learning to ride a bike, you’re going to fail; but if you keep at it, you know you will succeed. A child doesn’t say after 20 stumbles, I guess this “walking thing” isn’t for me.  No, he or she keeps on trying until they get it, even if it takes them twice as long as someone else.

Anything worth doing is going to be hard.

Jimmy Dugan said, “It’s supposed to be hard.  If it wasn’t hard everyone would do it.  The hard…is what makes it great.”

Successful people, more then anything else, do what unsuccessful people are unwilling to do.  Successful people are willing to fail until they succeed, and they are constantly learning, growing and changing from each failure.

So let me encourage you to double your failure rate, ask for that additional business, ask for the promotion, start the business you’ve always wanted and begin to fail forward today.

Thank you for reading mrselfdevelopment.com where every article expands your mind, increases your faith, and changes your life.

If you’ve enjoyed reading this article please subscribe to my “RSS Feed” or submit this page to your favorite social media site.