FAIL FORWARD IN 2008
Tags: B.C. Forbes, Business, Colin Powell, Henry Ford, Inspiration, Leadership, Michael Jordan, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Richard M. Nixon, Thomas Edison, Winston Churchill
Why is failure considered to be such a negative term? Fear… that’s why. We’re afraid of losing our money, our ego, our pride and our credibility. It’s been said… “To be more successful in life, we need to double our rate of failure.” Seems oxymoronic… right?
We simply can’t succeed without failing. Consider this true story. A successful manufacturing executive; while leading his $400 million company, recently stepped into a staff meeting… and commenced sharing one of his biggest and most embarrassing failures. He then challenged his staff, by laying 2 one hundred dollar bills on the table. He said… “Anyone who can share a failure bigger than mine, will win this $200.” Well, the first meeting was a flop. Nobody spoke up. They were too afraid of being shamed and embarrassed.
At the next monthly meeting… they were able to break through that fear barrier. He ended up awarding that $200 to one of his staff who so bravely shared one of her most colossal failures. From that second monthly meeting on… he was never left with his $200 on the table. Since that moment… his manufacturing company continued to be more and more successful… quadrupling their gross sales every year.
Failure is not a crime. Failure to learn from failure… is the crime.
As you approach 2008, I hope you’ll find some of the following quotes as educational and inspirational as I did.
THOMAS EDISON: “The successful person makes a habit of doing what the failing person doesn’t like to do.”
WINSTON CHURCHILL: “Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.”
RALPH WALDO EMERSON: “Men succeed when they realize that their failures are the preparation for their victories.”
B.C. FORBES: “History has demonstrated that the most notable winners encountered heart breaking obstacles before they triumphed. They finally won by their defeats.”
HENRY FORD: “Failure is the opportunity to begin again, more intelligently.”
RICHARD M. NIXON: “Defeat doesn’t finish a man–quit does. A man is not finished when he’s defeated. He’s finished when he quits.”
COLIN POWELL: “There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure.”
MICHAEL JORDAN: “I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life… That is why I succeed.”
THE DREAM MANAGER
Tags: Eleanor Roosevelt, Inspiration, Mark Twain, Matthew Kelly, Patrick Henry, Ralph Waldo Emerson, T.E. Lawrence, William Shakespear
Mark Twain once said… “He who hasn’t read great books has no advantage over those that can’t read” I am going through a great book at the moment that’s really caught me off guard. I am only half way through this book, so this post isn’t meant to be a highlight summary of the book per se.
The Dream Manager is a book I picked up because the preface; and title of course, caught my attention. It spoke to the escalating epidemic and corporate confusion over how to discover; and even more critically, retain talented, quality driven staff leadership.
Well, while this book certainly speaks to this exigent need… it shouted to me something far greater.
It stealthily directed me to recognize that I had stopped dreaming. I mean… it’s not that I have no dreams… it’s rather that I had unwittingly allowed my dreams to take the infamous back seat to my day-to-day urgencies. I had lost sight of my dreams.
Many of you can relate to this all too well. I would encourage you to passionately reengage your dreams and shift them to the forefront of your focus and intention. Don’t let the urgent rob you of the important! Aggressively and intentionally place in front of you people, images, systems, books, accountibilities, space, time… anything… anything at all that perpetuates the relentless pursuit of your dreams.
I’ll leave you with some inspiring wisdom.
“I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past.”
Patrick Henry
“A skillful man reads his dreams for self-knowledge, yet not the details but the quality.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
“All men dream but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity; but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dream with open eyes to make it possible.”
T.E. Lawrence
“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.”
Eleanor Roosevelt
“To unpathed waters, undreamed shores.”
William Shakepeare