Thomas Alva Edison failed in his experiment for thousands of times before he was able to invent the electric light bulb. Laurence Peter failed when more than 20 publishers rejected his book, "The Peter Principle," before it became a best- seller. Abraham Lincoln failed the bar exam, failed in several business ventures, and failed in six major elections before he was finally elected president. The truth is, all the aforementioned great people failed... but they were not failures. Their actions may have failed but not their very selves, definitely not their spirits. In fact, they used those "failed moments" as a challenge, as a key to their success. The same can be said about any endeavor that we get into, your home business for instance. Are you failing in your home business? Have you ever failed? What did you do? Did you wallow in self-pity and blame everyone for your fall? Or did you choose to be positive about it? POSITIVE ASPECTS OF FAILURE Many people fail to realize that "failure" in itself is not really a bad thing. In fact, most of those people who have found success --- whether in their business or personal lives --- went through a series of failures. However, they did not see those experiences as a bane but as a boon. They learned from their mistakes, from their failures, and they used these lessons to try and try again until they attained success. Here are some positive aspects of failure: *Failure can actually mean that you are broadening your goals and undertaking fresh challenges. In business, as in life, you encounter various changes and challenges. Do you welcome such changes and challenges and see how you can improve your life through these? Or do you merely sulk and reject these because you are already comfortable with the status quo and you do not want to take any risk? That's exactly the point. People who take the challenge face the risk of failure, but they also accept the opportunity to succeed. Indeed, not failing may mean that you refuse to aim high and broaden your goals. You content yourself with setting "low goals" because you are afraid of failure. In the end, the irony of it all is that you may be failing even more because you have already lost the chance of success when you chose to do nothing about it. *Failure can be a good test of persistence and perseverance. How far are you willing to go? How much are you willing to take? Truly, it is much, much easier to quit when you fail. However, a person who has the makings of a true successful person will persevere. He will use whatever lessons he has learned from past mistakes and actually turn his failure into success. Is your business failing? Don't quit. If you do, you actually admit defeat and you are already accepting that you are a failure. Do not look at failure as something to shun or be afraid of. Instead, look at it as an opportunity --- to learn, to grow, to aspire for more. Consider failure as a significant part of your life, because life demands that we act, participate, move. And in so doing, we take the risk of failing. But this only proves that we are actually doing our share. FAILING SUCCESSFULLY Now that you are aware of the positive aspects of failing, you are ready to apply these in your business or your personal life. Here are some ways to transform that failure into success: 1) Fail honestly. Sincerely acknowledge that you failed --- in that particular endeavor, for that time. However, make sure that you are not accepting defeat and you are not looking at yourself as a failure. 2) Fail intelligently. Take advantage of a failed endeavor. Evaluate the experience. Analyze what went wrong. Learn from such experience. 3) Fail courageously. Do not use such failure as an alibi for quitting. Instead, extract more courage from such failed endeavor and be ready to try again, to make things better the next time. THE KEY TO UNLOCK YOUR SUCCESS There are numerous reasons why endeavors, such as home businesses, fail. As discussed earlier, we have the power to turn failure into success. Take note, however, that we can allow failure to do two things --- to lock the door towards our success or to serve as a key to open the door and lead us to our success. Will you allow failure to lock that precious door? Or will you use it to unlock and open the very same door that it had locked? Here are some of those factors: *LOCKED: Unclear business plan *UNLOCK IT: Write out in detail a business plan that is clear, complete, and goal-oriented. A business plan is the very foundation of your business. Remember that failing to plan is tantamount to planning to fail. *LOCKED: Unclear goals *UNLOCK IT: Formulate your goals and focus on them. How will you achieve something if you are not sure of what you really want to achieve? *LOCKED: No specified target market *UNLOCK IT: Clearly define your target market. By desiring to sell to everyone, you may end up selling to no one at all. Truly, only a handful of people succeed easily. Oftentimes, success is the sweet fruit that you reap after toiling with failure. It can be the key to your success. Yes, we all experience failure in our lives. But the question is: Do we use failure to make us better? Or do we just choose to be bitter? |
