In order to succeed, you usually have to fail at some point. We know this, but failing on purpose can be a tough thing to do. It helps to understand that embracing failure means you have control over it. Try thinking of failure as one side of a pendulum.
Photo by Evonne.
In an interview with Entrepreneur’s Meiko Patton, publisher Darren Hardy recalls some of the best advice he received on achieving success:
At his first real estate seminar, he bravely asked the lecturer to lunch and asked for the man’s best tip on being successful. The lecturer told him to go fail and do it often. Hardy was perplexed.
So, the man picked up his napkin and pulled out a pen. He wrote on the napkin that, “Life, growth, and achievement work like a pendulum. On one side you have failure, rejection, pain and sadness. But on the other side, you have success, victory, joy and happiness.”
Guess which side we have control over? Right: the side that comes with pain and failure and rejection. In that area, we control our own destiny.
How you choose to react to rejection and failure can make a big difference in how far that pendulum swings. His point is: if success is important to you, you don’t want to be so scared of rejection that you’d rather not swing the pendulum at all.
Embracing failure is a concept we’ve discussed before. But it’s inspiring to realise that embracing it is one variable you do have control over. Going back to the metaphor, this means you can choose to make the pendulum swing in the first place. It might be one variable, but it’s powerful.
To check out the rest of the interview, head to the full article below.
The ‘Pendulum Effect’ and Other Secrets of How to Achieve Success [Entrepreneur]
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