“Remember that sometimes not getting what you want is a wonderful stroke of luck.” -Dalai Lama
from http://www.tinybuddha.com
Failure comes with many lessons that are often missed because our feelings are hurt. Failure is a natural part of all growth processes. It lets us know what we can do different to ensure further success and also when timing is just not right.
I wish our society would talk more about failure. The media is full of stories of people raising quickly to the top many at any price and at any cost. We are bombarded by reality shows on TV 24/7 that portraits to us and, dangerously, to our kids a f
ake and unreal life, distorted values, wrong priorities and that a failure makes you a life long looser….It is not good entertainment to talk about disappointments, heart pains and falls one might endure on the way to success.
Success is more like hills and valleys then one big incline. If we use the stairs to get to success, falling is safer. You have walked these steps before and can easily overcome them and start all over. If a helicopter drops you off at the top of a mountain, you get their quicker but if you slide, you have no idea how to get back up.
Opportunity often hides in the most unlikely places, but it isn’t easy to see it when you are disappointed that life didn’t meet your expectations, when your plans haven’t turned out to be what you have dreamt of, when your heart is broken and you feel like you will never be able to love again..
I have listed below few people who had the strength, vision and courage to overcome their failures and made the best out of the failure and criticism and disappointments life and people have put them through….
“Things turn out best for those who make the best of the way things turn out.” Jack Buck.
Michael Jordan’s high school coach cut him from the basketball team, which may have pu
shed him to work harder and become an NBA superstar. Most people wouldn’t believe that a man often lauded as the best basketball player of all time was actually cut from his high school basketball team. Luckily, Jordan didn’t let this setback stop him from playing the game and he has stated, “I have missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I have lost almost 300 games. On 26 occasions I have been entrusted to take the game winning shot, and I missed. I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”
Walt Disney: Today Disney rakes in billions from merchandise, movies and theme parks around the world, but Walt Disney himself had a bit of a rough start. He was fired by a newspaper editor because, “he lacked imagination and had no good ideas.” After that, Disney started a number of businesses that didn’t last too long and ended with bankruptcy and failure. He kept plugging along, however, and eventually found a recipe for success that worked.
Thomas Edison: In his early years, teachers told Edison he was “too stupid to learn anything.” Work was no better, as he was fired from his first two jobs for not being productive enough. Even as an inventor, Edison made 1,000 unsuccessful attempts at inventing the light bulb. Of course, all those unsuccessful attempts finally resulted in the design that worked.
Oprah Winfrey: Most people know Oprah as one of the most iconic faces on TV as well as one of the richest and most successful women in the world. Oprah faced a hard road to get to that position, however, enduring a rough and often abusive childhood as well as numerous career setbacks including being fired from her job as a television reporter because she was “unfit for tv.”
Elvis Presley: As one of the best-selling artists of all time, Elvis has become a household name even years after his death. But back in 1954, Elvis was still a nobody, and Jimmy Denny, manager of the Grand Ole Opry, fired Elvis Presley after just one performance telling him, “You ain’t goin’ nowhere, son. You ought to go back to drivin’ a truck.”
Fred Astaire: In his first screen test, the testing director of MGM noted that Astaire, “Can’t act. Can’t sing. Slightly bald. Can dance a little.” Astaire went on to become an incredibly successful actor, singer and dancer and kept that note in his Beverly Hills home to remind him of where he came from.
Soichoro Honda: The billion-dollar business that is Honda began with a series of failures and fortunate turns of luck. Honda was turned down by Toyota Motor Corporation for a job after interviewing for a job as an engineer, leaving him jobless for quite some time. He started making scooters of his own at home, and spurred on by his neighbors, finally started his own business.
Akio Morita: You may not have heard of Morita but you’ve undoubtedly heard of his company, Sony. Sony’s first product was a rice cooker that unfortunately didn’t cook rice so much as burn it, selling less than 100 units. This first setback didn’t stop Morita and his partners as they pushed forward to create a multi-billion dollar company.
As you can see you never know when a disappointment might pave the path for something great.
Embrace your disappointments and learn the lessons they have to teach. It might be the brick that will connect the road from an ordinary life to an extraordinary life.
Related articles
- Success is a journey not a destination:The only failure is when you QUIT (counselloroncall.wordpress.com)
- 50 Famously Successful People Who Failed At First. by: Melissa A.Venable, PhD (waleolusi.wordpress.com)
- Role Model for Success (pathofwinners.wordpress.com)
- Failure Is The Negative Space Around Success (lorensworld.com)
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