Failure: Your Crash Course To Success

• Tweet

• Tweet

I looked over my shoulder, put the car in reverse, and began to slalom through the cones to demonstrate my parallel parking prowess.  Or lack there of…  I knocked over one of the cones.  And then I drove on the wrong side of the road. I failed my driver’s test.

After four years of night school, weeks of expensive and time consuming review classes, and sitting in a room packed with hundreds of other recent law school grads for three days straight – I opened my letter from the Supreme Court of Ohio.   The letter stated I was four points shy of being a licensed attorney.  I failed the Ohio bar exam.

I gasped for breath and reached for the edge of the pool.  After swimming in full gear and combat boots for 25 meters while holding a rubber rifle out of the water I was exhausted and couldn’t tread water for the required five minutes.  I failed the Army water survival test.

Six years of sixteen-hour days and mountains of debt eventually buried my dream martial arts and fitness business.  I closed the doors for good and filed bankruptcy in March of 2010.  I failed at business.

Each of the failed “tests” were passed on the second try.  I’ve had a valid driver’s license for well over twenty years.  I practiced law in Ohio for nearly four years.  I trained with a Special Forces team for two weeks in the swamps of Louisiana on the execution of water borne missions.  And I’ve helped more people improve their health and fitness in the last year via the internet than I could have in twenty years with my storefront gym.  I needed the experience clothed in failure to adjust my tactics and strategies so that I could succeed on the next attempt.

My experience with finding success out of failure is not unique.  I’m sure you can reflect on examples from your own experiences where set-backs and obstacles proved to be necessary for eventual victory.  Great minds throughout history have reflected on the power of failure and I have included many failure quotes in the video below:

I will gladly take the bumps and bruises of failure as a crash course to success.  It may be the only real formula for success: Risk.  Fail.  Adjust.  Repeat until successful.

What are your thoughts on failure and success?  What experiences have you had where set-backs and obstacles proved necessary for eventual victory?  Share your thoughts in the comments below.

And if you liked this article, be sure to sign up for email updates by clicking here.