Phil Cooke

A New Look at Failure

“Would you like me to give you a formula for success?  It’s quite simple, really.  Double your rate of failure.”
– Thomas J. Watson – Former President of IBM

The secret to overcoming failure is to divide your circumstances into two groups:  situations you can change and situations you can’t.  I believe nearly everything can be changed or at least approached in a different way, but sometimes they can’t be changed right now.  Start with the situations that you
can’t change (at least right now):  physical handicaps, financial situations, geographic locations, family issues, age, etc…
Second, make a list of situations you can change.  Your job, your schedule, your location, education, skills, friends or associates, etc…

If you’re fifty with an impressive gut and want to be a pro baseball player, short of a miracle, that’s not going to happen.  Or if you’re past the legal draft age and want to be a soldier, then we need to explore other possibilities.  Far too many people fail (and continue to fail) because they’re trying to change a situation that simply can’t be altered.  Stop banging your head against a wall and start practicing realistic thinking.

The bottom line?  Change your thinking about failure.  Failure is simply a potential result.  You are not a failure – you are part of the process, and every outcome is another step on the road to eventual success.  Without failure, change is never possible, and success can never be achieved.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 18th, 2008 at 9:29 am and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.