The great Winston Churchill said, "Success is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm." Michael Jordan, arguably one of the best basketball players who has ever lived, noted that "I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. Twenty-six times I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed." I cannot say that I've been throught the same, but I can certainly relate. After having spent immoderate amounts of money on buying gaming accounts. If you were to check out AussyELO, you'd know what I'm talking about. I do not stand at a significant level in that game, but I've always kept on playing the same game.
Everyone fails. Sadly, we're not taught this crucial bit of information while we're in school. The kids who fail repeatedly are usually assigned labels, or worse yet, separated from their peers and put into special classes or situations that create a direct correlation between failure and fear. The most experienced and thoughtful leaders understand that in order to better themselves, they must not be afraid to travel into the unknown or take on a challenge that might not turn out as expected.
When mistakes are made, the important part is to stand up and move ahead. For the smart ones, failure becomes a motivator; a talisman, which encourages an individual to move forward in spite of the fear of failure. And it's the business leaders who embrace this mantra who continue to move forward one misstep at a time.
Everyone fails. It's the leaders who turn failure into calculated prediction, and who are able to better rationalize their next move, that confidently take the progressive steps toward victory.
Published by: davefletcher in The Internal Mechanism, The Linking Mechanism
Tags: confidence, dave fletcher, failure, fear, leadership, michael jordan, mistakes, victory, winston churchill