If You Want Success, Welcome Failure...

Success doesn't happen overnight. It takes time, effort, patience, perseverance, persistence, and confidence. People tend to give up within the first few tries. Truly, the only difference between successful people and unsuccessful people is the number of times they both try. 

Some of the most successful people failed many times before succeeding. Take Dutch painter Vincent Van Gogh for instance: He created some 900 paintings and 1100 drawings, yet only sold one, The Red Vineyard, in his lifetime. After his death, he became truly famous. His portrait of Dr. Gachet sold for $82.5 million~!

Many of us look at the word failure in  a very traumatic way, when indeed it is nothing more than another experience, which has its rewards and benefits in the sense that it allows us to grow and become stronger. Short term, it certainly doesn't seem that way, but long term, if you can only apply what you have learned through failure, you will overcome it. 

Don't be paralyzed by fear, be it fear of failure of fear of success. For one thing, most of what we fear and worry about never happens. So, it's just a waste of energy. Then, fearing something that is imminent doesn't prevent it from happening, as my father taught me, therefore you just make yourself miserable in the process. Rather than wasting your time in futile worrying, plan your next step. It will keep your mind off the bad things and keep you focused on moving forward. Finally, when you avoid making some important decisions due to your fear of failing, you are ensuring your failure. The best way to fail is to do nothing!  My favorite quote from Guillaume Apollinaire reads:

"Come to the edge, he said.

They said: No, we are afraid!

Come to the egde, he said.

They came.

He pushed them

And they flew."

Don't let failure devastate your future. Realize that both success and failure are two sides of the same coin and that they are only temporary. Failure is not a dead end: it's only a detour. Don't blow it out of proportion. Get up and get going again! It's not much different than when you fell as a little kid. You got up, cleaned up your knees, wallowed in it for a minute, and perhaps got your mommy to kiss it better, but did it stop you from walking or running ever again???