From awards to photos on social media, we generally like to celebrate success. Often, we forget the mistakes, missteps, and miscalculations that may take place along the way. For many, the secret of success is that it can be built on the culmination of lessons learned from defeat.
Those who turn failure into success are all around us, from parents and entrepreneurs to students and coworkers to those who overcome hardships and others who struggle with ongoing challenges. However, common tips and advice can be taken from each of them.
Don’t be afraid to fail
It’s okay to make mistakes. They shouldn’t be seen as downfalls as much as opportunities to learn and grow. A key to success is redefining failure as simply learning more than you knew before. When failure makes an appearance, think of it as a stepping stone or building block challenging you to think outside the box. Failure is merely success suspended.
Analyze
Failure is the parent to inventiveness. While it’s tempting to move on and forget ideas that don’t connect, you can’t learn from the experience without taking time to determine what went wrong. Any idea or situation can be improved and strengthened. Once you’ve learned what you can, move on and fight the urge to overanalyze.
Apply lessons learned
Once you’ve discovered the source of what went wrong, apply lessons learned so it won’t happen again. For many successful people, continual evaluation, determination, and the ability to adapt are the key to growth. Great success is built on great failures.
Stay positive
The well-known Japanese proverb “nana korobi ya oki” roughly translates to “fall down seven times, get up eight.” Experiencing failure doesn’t mean it should define every situation. Expect great things to happen! When you do, you’ll be in the right mindset to put success into action while preparing for learning opportunities along the way.
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