Failing to Succeed

Here's an inspiring article from Forbes on Looking Failure in the Face. I always admire people that have been at the very bottom and fought their way back to success. We usually remember people for their success and overlook the role failure played in them reaching success.

"The idea that a single "F" will keep you out of college and ruin your life
is something they use to scare students into doing their homework. The reality
is that we all have a string of "F"s on our records, whether we acknowledge them
or not, and those failures, just like our successes, add up to form our lives
and who we are."

I was terrified of failing in school, but my career, both at my job and in my side businesses has been a string of one failure after another. I've had many hundreds of experiments fail during my career. My successes have been few and far between, yet I am still employed after 29 years of failing. Why is this? Well, I've had enough successes to save or make $10's of millions of dollars for my company.

In my side businesses I've had a mix of success and failures as well. My first venture into real estate was a disaster and I had to take an embarrassing step backwards to recover. I told hundreds of people I would get rich in Amway, but in the end I only had moderate success.

Never the less, I survived and am working on another real estate business. Will I succeed this time? I don't know. But I do know I will survive no matter what happens and keep trying until I reach my goals. One aspect of my personality that I find I have in common with other successful people is perseverance and a willingness to work hard.

What will the focus of your life be - your failures or your goals?