WHAT IS FAILURE?
by Bob Kawabe
What do you think about when you hear the word, “FAILURE”? Is FAILURE a good or a bad thing? That all depends on who you might ask and what their belief might be. That is the key word, “BELIEF”. How you see and associate FAILURE is all dependent upon what YOU believe about FAILURE and what it means to YOU!
There are multiple views to see everything and there is no difference here. Since I’m here to INSPIRE you and create a POSITIVE BELIEF within yourself, I want to share how I see FAILURE and what it means to me.
First of all, I do not see FAILURE as how some people might see it……….as end all. Instead, I see it as a way to gage myself and to know exactly where I stand. If things did not work out as expected or was not successful doing things one way, this allows me to see things to better understand what needs to be done, the actions I can take and where I might need to improve on. Think of FAILURE as an EXPERIENCE we all can learn from, so don’t get down on yourself just because you did not get the outcome you wanted. Even when you get rejected, don’t get so hung up on it, just move on and keep going.
I made over 20,000 door-to-door cold calls to businesses physically in person for over 5 years early on in my business career. Over 98% of the businesses I called on rejected me. Do you know what I did? I just moved on and kept going and never took it personally. Because I knew eventually, I will get to a business that will say YES! And they did!! What I want you to learn from this is, life is not always perfect, and we should never expect it to be, so you must adapt and adjust and just keep going no matter what and NEVER, EVER give up!!
A lot of people have this fear of FAILURE as if it is going to kill them. Especially, the fear of rejection is huge for a lot of people. If that was the case, I would have died over 20,000 times from all those rejections I got!! You cannot worry about what others might think, say or do, as you have NO control over the actions of others, so why worry about it?! Take any mental block OFF that you have, that is preventing you from achieving your greatness. As I said earlier, if something does not work one way, move on and find another way to do it and another way until you do. But you got to keep going and always stay mentally tough!!
The best way to do this is to stay focused on your goals by seeing the POSSIBILITIES and take any necessary ACTIONS required to get closer to the outcome you want and never allow any fear of FAILURE stop you!! Always SEE the exact outcome you want and take any necessary actions to get there. By the way, the fear of FAILURE is all in your head, so get over it and let’s go!! Wayne Gretzky said it so well when he said, “You Miss 100% of the Shots You Don’t Take!” If that is the case, why not take those shots? At least you now have a chance to make one!
You know the sayings: “NO ACTION equals NO RESULTS and NO RISK equals NO REWARDS” and it is simple as that guys! Playing it safe and taking NO action will never get you anywhere in life. It is those who are willing to take that chances and risks are the ones who will get ahead in life.
This great saying says it all about what FAILURE IS. “FAILURE is the STEPPING STONE to SUCCESS!” This means, FAILURE is just a part of your path you walk through to YOUR success. It is just the part of the process and therefore, you must be willing to FAIL to SUCCEED, and that means you must take ACTION! This goes to show how life does not go in a straight line and there will be various setbacks in your life, but what matters is what you learn from your FAILURES and what you do about it to keep you moving forward in the right direction.
In closing, shift your mindset on how you see FAILURES and make the necessary ADJUSTMENTS so you can improve and get better. Life does not stand still, and it requires constant ADJUSTMENTS. The world is also constantly moving forward and changing, so you must be moving forward with it, or you will get left behind. So, continue to keep moving forward because before you know it, you will be right there, achieving all that you had dreamed about and hoped for! Go out there, continue to dream BIG and know that ANYTHING in life is possible. The best part of all this?.………….It is all UP TO YOU to make it happen!! Wishing you all the best in achieving your SUCCESS!!
