From Failure to Success

From Failure to Success

What is success? What does it mean to succeed at something? And how can we increase the likelihood of success?

When you think of people you would consider “successful,” the list tends to include many who make success look effortless. Take Richard Branson as an example. He always appears relaxed, calm, and cool. If you do not do your homework and just look at his career superficially, you will likely see him as a serial success. It could look as though he can do no wrong.

But if you ask him, Mr. Branson would likely tell you a different story. In fact, if you just read a few of his quotes, you will see that his view of success is quite different. For example, he has said:

You don’t learn to walk by following rules. You learn by doing, and by falling over.

What he seems to be saying there is that when you are pushing your boundaries, when you are trying to do something you have never done before, you are going to fall. You are going to mess up. But you have to get back up, and try again.

Failure Happens, Now What?

Like Mr. Branson, most people that we would consider successful have a similar perspective. They will tell you that their list of failures far exceed their list of successes. Moreover, they tend to agree that were it not for all of the failures, they would have never found their way to success.

The German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, famous for his “That which does not kill us makes us stronger” quote, often spoke about the challenges of success. He and others remind us that behind every success lies a battle ground littered with the corpses of our failures. And that if we allow a failure to stop us – to keep us from pressing on – we will never reach the goals that we have for ourselves.

Grit

In yesterday’s blog I wrote about grit, the combination of passion and persistence. Grit is the attribute that allows us to view failures as a natural part of success.

When you work on something you are passionate about, you tend to dedicate more time and energy than you would otherwise. Your “want to” is at a high level and you find a way to use every available second to focus on that passion.

While it is somewhat difficult to understand why we become passionate about some things and not others, persistence is somewhat of a learned trait. Persistence is the aspect of grit that helps you overcome frustrations. Persistence is the attribute that – in some intrinsic way – makes you stubbornly push on, when others would quit.

We start learning persistence in childhood. When we do not score as well as we wanted on a test, when we do not get a trophy because we came in second place, or when we were the last one picked. These are all experiences that leave you with a decision. Do I push on, or do I quit?

Success From Failure

If we have any hope for success, we must accept the fact that we will experience failures along the way. There is nothing easy about success. There is nothing automatic about success. There are no promises that you will find success.

A final example of this comes from my favorite sport — soccer. For those of you who watch the English Premier League, you know the magical story that is Leicester City Football Club and their leading scorer Jamie Vardy.

Leicester City was in the third division of English football in 2008, and were promoted to the second division in 2009. Five years later, in 2014, they worked their way up to the premier league (first division), but were very nearly relegated back to the second division in that same season. Ending the season on the bottom cusp of the table, they had to fight until the last match to remain in the premier league.

This season, has been a different story. As of today, they are the first place team in the premier league and well on their way to finish the season as champions. They worked, overcame the disappointments from last season, and return with a vengeance, with a passion unmatched by any other team.

Similarly, Leicester City’s Jamie Vardy, who has now scored 21 goals for the season (which puts him in the top three scorers in the league), has come a long way in five years. In 2011, Vardy played in the fifth division of English soccer.

From the fifth division to a leading scorer in one of the strongest leagues in the world, all in about five years. Not a bad career path. But had he settled. Had he decided that the fifth division was good enough. Had he only worked hard enough to remain at that level, no one would know his name. No one would know the unbelievable talent that is Jamie Vardy.

He failed. He struggled. He met with frustration, anger, and disappointment. But when you watch him, you can see his passion. That, matched by his obvious perseverance, has resulted in what has been described as a “story for the ages.”

Though you may have no interest in soccer, or sport in general, these same principles apply to you and your life. When you find your passion and find a way to maintain your perseverance, your grit will get you through and help you find success; in what every way you choose to define it.