The Entrepreneurial Journey: Where Success Stories Are Born Out of Failure
Steve Jobs? Mark Zuckerberg? Bill Gates? Sounds like familiar names? We all know them by their immense “success” stories, however, what we fail to acknowledge are their failures.
It’s crazy how the word ‘failure,’ gives us nightmares forcing us to quit and never try something again. Someone famous has said, ‘try and fail, but don’t fail to try,’ this statement needs implantation in our minds before the pressure of failing overpowers our mind and heart.
Now, I’m not here to lecture you on ‘trying’ or ‘never giving up,’ but to make you believe that failing is completely normal and humane. The fact that all of us have failed at some point in our lives makes us alike and similar.
It’s quite obvious, nobody is going to pat your back after you’ve failed your board exam or failed the 50th job interview, however, what we all need to comprehend is every success story is born out of failure.
How to be successful?
Now, there’s no success recipe, it takes time, effort, and patience to reach heights and achieve something in life. All you need to do is take the first stride as every journey begins with a single step. However, before commencing the success journey, you need to be okay with failing and for that, knowing how to deal with failure is vital.
How to deal with failure?
If you’re expecting me to give you a step-by-step guide of how to deal with failure then you’re wrong. Dealing with failure isn’t a process, it’s something that comes from within.
Our society has instilled in our minds that failing is bad and an unworthy act. However, the view on failure needs to change. It is an opportunity to learn something and not something that requires avoidance.
We need to accept failure to deal with it. Once you’ve accepted that failure is normal, you can try various ways to deal with it such as embracing your emotions, positivity, etc.
Failure before success
My point is simple, nothing comes on a silver platter, an individual needs to put his heart and soul into whatever he wants to achieve. Nobody is born successful, everyone has fallen from the ladder only to climb again.
To illustrate this better, here are some of the highly famous people who failed before succeeding:
- Thomas Edison: Known for inventing the lightbulb failed 10,000 times before he finally created it. He said, ‘I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.’ This shows his optimistic approach and acceptance of failure.
Apart from this, as a child, he was being considered dumb and told that he’d never be successful since his mind used to wander in the class. But, as we can see he became one of the finest American inventors of his time.
- Walt Disney: Can you perceive your childhood without Disney? Well, that would have been the case if Disney believed one of his newspaper editors who criticized his ideas and told him he lacked imagination. Undeterred by anybody’s opinion, Disney continued to create his iconic ideas under his name.
- Albert Einstein: His name is an alternative for ‘intelligence.’ Surprisingly, that wasn’t always the case for Einstein.
As a child, Einstein was being labelled as mentally handicapped since he didn’t speak until the age of four and read until seven. Yet, he won a Nobel Prize and transformed the world’s perspective on physics. - J.K. Rowling: Harry Potter wouldn’t be alive if it wasn’t for J.K. Rowling. Despite getting rejected 12 times, Harry Potter became her career’s biggest success. One of the richest women in the world today, Rowling was a poor, divorced, and depressed, single mother while she wrote the novel and studied simultaneously.
- Abraham Lincoln: The 16th U.S. president who was also a lawyer and an American statesman failed miserably at multiple points in his life. He earned the lowest military rank when he left for war. Apart from this, he also failed in his move for many business attempts. Undiscouraged, Lincoln entered the political domain, where he achieved presidency after numerous failed runs at the political office.
- Oprah Winfrey: A highly influential woman, a billionaire American anchor with her own successfully running T.V. channel and a likeness for giving away cars, was born into a poor family. This established woman did not have a smooth life; she got fired from her first T.V. job as a host in Baltimore since people saw her ‘unsuitable’ for television.
However, she didn’t let the failure get to her as we can see how far she has come today. - Lady Gaga: One of the best-selling artists of her time, Lady Gaga’s talent, style, and persona made her the center of attention. However, she had faced her share of problems in life.
Initially, when she began her singing career, a prominent record label signed her on, but, three months later she got removed from the panel of artists.
This did not dim her light as she continued to experiment and develop herself only to become the sensation that she is today!
Final Words
So, by now, it’s pretty obvious that success does not exist without dealing with certain setbacks. It’s rare to see successful people having a smooth run, but what matters is the persistence and determination to succeed which goes a long way!
