Dealing
with So-Called Failure
By
Jeffery Combs
What
makes the difference between ordinary and extraordinary, between average and
excellent, mediocre and superb? Is it family background? Are achievers born
into wealth? Do some people have better opportunities than others?
Opportunity is a strange thing because two people with similar gifts, talents
and resources can look at a situation and one person will see tremendous
opportunity while the other is negative and skeptical. One man's junk is
another man's jewel. Opportunity is like beauty — it's in the eye of the
beholder.
Is achievement gained because of hardship or because of lack of hardship? Is
it high morals or how about a great education? Perhaps here is the great
secret: I believe it is none of these items.
The line that separates those who achieve from those who don't is different
perceptions and responses to what many people consider failure. Nothing else
has such a dramatic impact on people's ability to achieve and to accomplish
their goals.
There are literally thousands of ways to become a winner and the sure way I
know of to stay average is to fail and not investigate what you've gained from
the apparent failure. Through trial and error, I eventually taught myself how
to view, what most people say is failure, differently. I taught myself that
everything happens for a reason.
When a situation or a circumstance happens and it doesn't appear favorably for
me at that moment, I've learned to detach and pull back, instead of
over-reacting to the circumstances. By detaching, I'm talking about stepping
back and accepting that there are many situations you cannot change but you
can definitely change how you view them, especially related to what most
people perceive to be failure.
I ask people all the time who say they've failed, I say, "Have you
really? Did you really fail?" Then I ask them the next question —
"What did you gain, who did you meet, how did it develop character, what
happened because of the situation?"
I thoroughly believe that for every door that closes, a window opens. Let's
look at networking, direct sales and entrepreneurship. Now this industry has
the potential to completely set you free provided you learn the thoughts,
actions and simple disciplines applied or required for you to become
successful. I've seen many average people who've never had success in any
other endeavors have fantastic success in direct sales, networking or in any
kind of small business. I've also seen many people who've success in a
corporate environment fail miserably as an entrepreneur.
To a large extent, the reason the failure rate is so high in free enterprise
is that we as a society are not prepared and not mentally conditioned to deal
with the inevitable emotional roller coaster of entrepreneurship. We are
taught through education, training, college, other schooling and on the job
training to become good employees. We end up learning job skills, not the
free-thinking skills that lead to success as an entrepreneur. Most of all we
are not taught how to look at our mistakes and failures properly.
I have personally attended hundreds of seminars, rallies and conventions over
the last several years and have heard the stories and testimonies of people
who have succeeded. It often looks easy from the audience's perspective to
make a $10,000 per month check or have a $100,000 per year. I remember in my
early career, seeing these people and saying to myself, "If they can do
it, so can I." They are no different. That was true, except the
difference between them and me was a few key points that I had to learn in the
journey.
Skills such as developing a belief, understanding how to market myself, how to
be consistent, how to be self-motivated over time to create what is called
"compounding". Internal compounding is going to be the difference
between average and exceptional. Internal compounding really begins with you
becoming comfortable with yourself, becoming the person you deserve to be,
really having a belief in yourself, a sense of certainty that no matter what
obstacles, what challenges, what hurdles arrive in your way, you begin to turn
these roadblocks into building blocks.
You're going to learn a different perception of challenges and how to overcome
them right now. Most important, with simple disciplines, learned, acquired and
then diligently and consistently applied over a period of time, you start to
release yourself from the attachment of what most people consider to be
failure. Personal growth coupled with a plan of action. Diligent and
consistent action to produce results not only in yourself, but with others,
too. The heart of a champion is developing heart rather than just relying on
your talent.
Do not compare yourself to others. You never know the price someone has paid
to get to their promised land, and they did pay it at one time or another.
Even the statement, "paying the price" is unusual. A good friend and
motivational speaker once said to me, "Jeff, it's not a price, it's a
privilege." Indeed, my friends, that is a whole different perspective.
Are you really paying a price or is it a privilege to be going through the
process that you are going through? Most importantly, it is imperative that
you start to view your past failures differently and change how you view
challenges and obstacles that face you today and in the future.
One of the most common problems I see in free enterprise and entrepreneurship
is that people quit too soon. They give up before barely getting started and
go back to what already wasn't working for them, giving up on their dreams. I
have found that if you don't have dreams, you end up working for people who
do. Will you ever get your promised land, producing results for someone else
in their dream?
Success isn't always easy, is it? And it's definitely not a sprint, it's a
marathon. Most people quit in free enterprise in their first 90 days, six
months or one year. This is a usual pattern; they don't stay in the game long
enough to learn the survival skills required to win the game of their life.
They dabble, they give it a shot, they try, they wish, they hope, they'd like
to, they think about it, they take little action, get their feelings hurt,
test the water and, most of all, treat it like a hobby, then it costs them
enough money, so they quit and say, "It didn't work for me" or
"I got burned."
Free enterprise is about going through mind shifts, evolutions of new
consciousness, getting out of the box, off the sidelines, in the game, playing
offense rather than defense, learning life skills, so that you can get paid
what you are worth. It is the opportunity to win the game of life on your
terms, in your time frame. Quitters never win and winners never quit. Winners
learn how to fail more intelligently. Isn't it time you learned how to treat
failure differently? Isn’t it time you changed how you've been changing?
Jeffery
Combs is an internationally recognized speaker, trainer, and author committed
to assisting people with personal growth and development. He can be contacted
online www.GoldenMastermind.com,
or toll free 800-595-6632.