by Arthur Holmes-Brown

Created on: May 04, 2009   Last Updated: October 24, 2009

Have you ever failed? I mean really failed?

Napoleon Hill wrote, "Every failure brings with it the seed of an equivalent success."

Failure can provide an opportunity to reassess your strengths and weaknesses; to revisit your goals and review your habit patterns. There is great potential for growth but it requires a brutally honest evaluation of your own experience and performance.

These days 'failure' can be a bit of a dirty word. We are hesitant to use the word to describe anything. Certainly, every person has an intrinsic worth and is deserving of dignity, respect and encouragement. This is so no matter what their circumstances, but it should not be mistaken for success or achievement.

If success is to mean anything at all it must be given a frame of reference. There needs to be a goal, an expectation. If the expectation is realised and the goal achieved then you have success. If not - failure.

Did you set a goal? Did you commit everything you had to it, heart & soul? If you did that and failed you will have experienced real pain.

Too often in business, targets are set and when they are not met there is no accountability. There is no follow-up. There is no pain. There is a knee-jerk temptation to reinterpret every outcome as a kind of pseudo-success. But that is nothing more than a temporary anaesthetic hindering the opportunity for honest, constructive change.

Remember failure is not final and if it can be acknowledged and quantified, it can be overcome. There is closure. If a failure is denied and covered up its source will remain an illusive enemy, crippling your integrity and bitting at the heels of your future goals.

Take Responsibility

It takes courage to acknowledge a failure for what it is and to accept personal responsibility for it. You may have put all you have on the line only to see your business or career fail leaving you shattered. At this point it is easy to blame the economic downturn, the corporate environment or your competitors. After all, these are components that are out of your control.

The truth is, to the extent that you blame someone else for your failure, you are placing your destiny in their hands. If they are the author of your defeat then you must wait upon their pleasure for your success. That is not how you want to live.

You can only control that which you are responsible for. The degree to which you can honestly take responsibility for your current situation determines the capacity you have to control your own future. If you got it wrong this time that is good news. It means you have the potential to learn from your mistake and succeed next time.

If today was a failure then so be it. Don't deny it. Embrace the pain of it. Learn from it. It wasn't pleasant. You don't want travel that road again. Take responsibility for it, destroy its power and begin tomorrow anew.

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