Are You Using Failure to Achieve Success?

The first thing to understand is the basic failure/success model.  Like most people, this used to be my model: 

Failure <---------- ME ----------> Success

I was in the middle between success and failure, and I always tried to move towards success and avoid failure.  However, I didn’t realize that by avoiding failure, I was actually avoiding success.  You’re probably thinking – “What are you talking about?  That doesn’t make sense.”  

Let me explain.  The correct model is:

ME ———-> Failure ———-> Success  

Failure is actually the halfway point on the road to success.  This concept was an eye opener for me and definitely made me think differently.  When most people fail, they give up (and consequently, they don’t reach success).  Instead, they should embrace failure.  You’re probably thinking “embrace failure? – that’s a strange concept.”   

Babe Ruth is a great example of the Go For No! concept.  He has the record for the most homeruns in baseball history. However, he also has the most strikeouts in baseball history. He didn’t give up when he had all of those strikeouts. He knew that all of those failures would lead to success. And guess what, we don’t focus on his failures, we remember his successes. We always hear about Babe Ruth’s 714 homeruns, but we never focus on his 1330 strikeouts.

In the book, Go for No!, they talk about a company who gives out rewards to the top selling salesperson and to the salesperson who received the most “no’s.”  Believe it or not, this is usually the same person.  The person that hears the word “no” the most (in other words, the person that fails the most) is usually the same person that succeeds the most (just like Babe Ruth).