What do you think about failure?  Do you think negatively? Do you cringe at the thought?  Do you assume the fetal position under the nearest sofa?

I am going to assume that you don’t think of failure as a positive.  If I am wrong about this, then consider yourself a radical thinker and a change agent because the world view still hold’s failure in a negative connotation.

So is failure a positive word? Is it something to be desired. Yes.  As a society, we tend to think positively of success and negatively of failure, but do you realize that we also see the standard for success as the amount of failure overcame?  We love underdogs.  We love the overnight success that took 20 years to build.  We despise real overnight success.  Think about it.  Which stories or movies move you the most: the kid who has it all and gains it all or the kid who has nothing and gains it all?  We love the Cinderella story.  We loved the New England patriots who won 3 of the 4 Super Bowls after 9/11.  They were ‘patriot’ic, America’s team.  Now, we’re sick of them winning (especially those of us who are Colt’s fans and enough is enough.  We are ready for a new Cinderella story in the NFL.  In fact, if the Colts can pull off a championship season, it will be all of the failures to the Patriots that will make the success that much sweeter.  Think John Elway of the Broncos.  Think Steve Young of the 49ers.

Failure is the cornerstone or foundation, if you will, of success.

Let me tell you something.  You want to feel like a success in the midst of failure?  Watch the movie  Cinderella Man (more info) with one of the great actors of our time – Russell Crowe – based on a true, depression-era story.  There is a point in the story where Crowe’s character, Jim Braddock can’t get a fight and is barely making enough money at the docks to keep the lights on and stock the refridgerator with dog scraps.  Pay attention to the part when Dad sits down to the table to eat his morning ration of a slice of ham and piece of bread.  His daughter moans with hunger pains AFTER eating her ration.  Dad immediately picks up his daughter’s spirit by engaging her in a dream that he had.  He tells her that he woke up this morning to a wonderful dream.  A dream in which he was sitting at a glorious buffett of never-ending food and in this dream, he ate and ate and ate.  So much that he woke up miserably full and couldn’t possibly eat another bite.  He then insists that she eat his ration to save him from over-eating.  Wow.  Seriously, watch that movie.

• “Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.” – Albert Einstein
• “Failure is success if we learn from it.” – Malcolm Forbes
• “Success does not consist in never making mistakes, but in never making them a second time.” – George Bernard Shaw
• “The season of failure is the best time for sowing the seeds of success.” – Paramahansa Yogananda
• “What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail?” – Robert Schuller
• “We are not retreating – we are advancing in another direction.” – Douglas MacArthur
• “Get up one more time than you’re knocked down.” – Peter’s Principle of Success

We tend to define success and failure as opposites.  They are not.  Failure is not bad because:

• success is good
• the greatest successes come from failure
• therefore, failure must be good

Repeating your failures – that’s bad.  Don’t do that.  Learn from each failure that you endure and you are one step closer to the success you want – in anything.  Don’t be the person who quits one step short of success or the person who spins their wheels making the same mistake repeatedly.  Learn and move on.  Good things await you if you do.

So, get out today.  Succeed if you can, fail if you must, but push forward and advance – even if it is in another direction.  And pass this story on to someone who needs a fresh perspective and a boost. ;)

Author | Dave Darby

Dave Darby is a husband, father of 5, son, entrepreneur, speaker and well, a renaissance man who frequently needs to dump his brain on thoughts about life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.