BEYOND FAILURE

ALSO AVAILABLE ON SOUNDCLOUD: https://soundcloud.com/nhlanhla-mafarafara/beyond-failure 

The subject of failure is one that is universal, as that of success. I say this because not everyone that failed ends up a great success. But the other way is truer in that the bulk of those who achieve great success have in some way experienced great failure. Thomas Edison had 10 000 failed attempts in his journey towards creating a light-bulb. His was of putting it is “I found 10 000 ways that do not work”. But somewhere in our communities you will find a young man who has tried three times to start a business at it failed and already is giving up. Come on!

The area of failure may be far from the area of success. You can experience a great failure in marriage, such that when you overcome such failures they open doors for corporate success. The great majority of highly successful businesses and organisations are run by happily married people. And you don’t wake up into a happy marriage, you work hard to it, sometimes with hard knocks. To have a successful marriage, business or life in general take for you to graduate from the school of hard knocks and be a  master in the master class of internationalist.

So success, as we all desire it in all its forms, according to Winston Churchill, Consists of going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm. 

What is the true meaning of failure as seen by successful people

-          Failure is a teacher, not an undertaker

-          Failure is a delay, not a defeat

-          Failure is a detour on a journey to success, not a dead end

-    Failure can only be avoided by DOING NOTHING, SAYING NOTHING AND BEING NOTHING; however, if you chose this option, you MAKE yourself a failure indeed.

-         It is failure that gives us a proper perspective in life

-         When you never experience failure, sometimes you don’t learn the value being strong

The necessity for failure

The first reward in pursuing a goal, an event, a journey, a relationship, a degree is what you become in the process of achieving it. When we teach people the art of goal setting we often say achieving the goal is not as important as whom you become in the journey of achieving the goal.  

Henry Ford once said “THE ONLY REAL MISTAKE IS THE ONE FROM WHICH WE LEARN NOTHING.” Failure is a school of life that teaches you things no formal education can teach you: resilience, perseverance, patience. I think it’s the failures in life and other areas that makes people build great financial assets. When they die and leave it to their children, it dies. Wealth skips a generation because some people are shielded from being tested by the silver platter.

The cost of embracing the negative meaning of failure

-     It robs you of the quality of life, the lessons that comes from it and your opportunity to develop

-        It robs people of enjoying the gift that’s in you. Imagine if all of us, or at least most of us lived our ideal lives, fearless, fruitful, relentless, etc

-     Often failure is coupled with fear, low self-confidence, and inability to think critically. As you embrace failure, you continue building your own house on weak material.

-       Depending on your mental disposition, failure can make you have a permanent negative outlook on life and the areas where you failed.

-      If you are a father, how would you feel if your child was given an opportunity to talk about you in front if a other children: how would your child introduce you if the introduction was based on attitude and behaviour?

94cm to millions (NB)

A story is told of man from Colorado who discovered Gold reserves in Williamsburg. He called his friends and family to help dig and transport gold. They made a fortune out of his invitation In a short space of time. They became millionaires. Later as they continued digging, the gold disappeared; all they dug was dust and rocks. For months after months, nothing came out. Because of the experience of the dry seasons, they called it quits. The sold all the machinery to the Junk Collector for few hundreds of dollars and went back home.  

The junk collector was not dumb, he did not have instant gratification problems, he did not have pride and was very smart and patient. 

So he called on an engineer for advice after signing the mining rights and land ownership from the previous owner who gave up. The engineer showed him that the previous owner failed because he was not familiar with FAULT LINES, his calculations showed that there was a great vein of THREE FEET underground. THAT IS JUST AROUND 95CM TO BILLIONS OF DOLLARS.