10 Things Everyone Can Learn From Failure

Oct 17, 2018 by apost team

In today’s results-driven and competitive world, failure can feel like one of the worst things in the world. Not only are you judged on the superficial like how big your house is to how successful you are in your career, but we also live in a society that deems failure something to avoid at all costs.

The last thing anyone wants to be considered is a failure and even the word can strike terror in the eyes of any student, mom, or CEO. The word has a deep connotation of negative emotion and being called a failure is one of the hardest things anyone can go through.

We often feel that failure is a critique of our personal self-worth. But before we go any further, think about some incredibly successful people. Some of them are even geniuses or founding fathers. What do the names Winston Churchill, Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Edison, Steven Spielberg, and Albert Einstein have in common?

Everyone would say that these are the brightest minds that have ever lived on our planet and they have had a huge effect on how we live today. But no one would attach the word failure to any one of them, would they? Actually, every single person listed was accounted as a failure at one time.

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Failure is always a matter of perspective. In today’s world, we often think of failure as a personal lack of the required action or success. But failure can also be a driving force. Look at Abraham Lincoln for example!

Lincoln has gone down as one of the best presidents in the history of the United States. The 16th President is often recorded as a great leader, but those history books will often leave out that he experienced many failures throughout his life.

He lost his jobs, failed in his multiple businesses, lost eight different runs for public office, and he was even rejected by his colleagues. Yet, the failure drove him to become one of the best presidents the U.S. has ever seen.

Failure is a key part of learning that most people tend to forget. But the best lesson failure has to teach you is that you ca learn from it. It’s actually a huge benefit of failing because you learn what not to do and understanding that is a huge key to success.

Also, if you never failed or everything came perfectly to you right away, what kind of person would you be? In fact, failure is what teaches you how to be the person you have always dreamed of being and it teaches you how to overcome adversity.

Have you ever heard the saying “When one door closes, another one opens?” This quote is about failure. Think about it for a minute. Look at some of what you perceive to be as your biggest failures? Did they lead you to another opportunity that you wouldn’t have considered otherwise?

This might be a really difficult breakup that led you to focus on yourself for a while, leading you to your dream job! Maybe you got fired from a job that you never liked anyway and it actually forced you to think about how you want to spend your precious time living your life.

Whatever your failure was, it probably led to something so much better than you could have ever imagined for yourself.

The moments when you learn are the moments where you have failed. After all, your failures will tell you where you are weak and where you are strong while giving you the motivation to persevere and correct your mistakes.

This can occur in all aspects of your life—from your studies to your career, to your relationships—failures are always the best teacher. Take Michael Jordan for example.

He failed to make his high school basketball team and he became one of the greatest basketball players of all time.

Everyone needs the courage to handle life, but most people are so afraid of failure that they are unwilling to try.

Sometimes we would just prefer the path we know, even if it doesn’t lead us to where we want to go. Failure requires courage though because it forces you to toughen up and try again.

It can be easy to want to just give up after you’ve failed. It takes courage to persevere. Take the author of the world-famous Harry Potter series. J.K. Rowling received tons of rejections before finding a publisher for her book. She learned to persevere and look at her results!

Creativity is driven by failure. Movie makers, artists, writers, all know that if they have a piece that doesn’t work, they need to tap into their creativity to make it work!

Motivation isn’t something people are born with. It is something that can be taught and that you can incorporate into your life on a day to day basis. When you find the motivation to trust yourself, you will always succeed.

We often think of failure as something that we simply can’t tolerate. This can lead people to stop trying because they are so afraid of failing. However, with the simple concept that failure is acceptable, people can learn that it is so much better than not trying at all. It’s the lack of effort that is simply not acceptable.

When people fail, it often leads them to explore the world around them. Steve Jobs is the perfect example. He always knew that the standard corporate world, college, and societal norms around work were simply not for him. He was often labeled as a failure but he didn’t care.

He wanted to create something that would last and he did when he created Apple.

Failure strengthens your resilience. When you experience failure, you learn through the discomfort and uncertainty. All successful people have resilience and the best way to develop that characteristic is through failure.

Do you know someone who feels like a failure? Cheer them up by sending them this article! Let us know your tips and tricks for dealing with failure in the comments.