Is failure the key to success?

"Highly successful people make more mistakes than those they surpass. They succeed because they learn from every mistake and turn them into stepping stones." - Michael Josephson

Actually, it's what you learn from failure and whether the experience breaks your spirit or strengthens your resolve.

O.k., I admit it's not a new insight to recognize that highly successful people often make more mistakes than those they surpass. As the quote in the picture suggests, they succeed because they learn from every mistake and  turn them into stepping stones. This is easier said than done.

It's not always easy to bounce back from major disappointments especially if you made a great effort to succeed , but it is vital that we remind ourselves (and instill in our children) the belief that mistakes, setbacks and even outright failures are a natural and inevitable part of learning what we need to ultimately succeed. In education, this is called the growth mindset and it is the foundation for persistence, perseverance, stick-to-it-iveness -- call it what you will -- qualities which prevent us from giving up when things don't turn out the way we want them to.  It is almost impossible to persevere -- to keep on trying -- if we have no hope of success. Thus, an essential partner of perseverance is positivity, an optimistic outlook based on the belief that effort and continued learning really works, if you believe that the road to success is paved with "failures". Its been said that when Thomas Edison once said the invention of the light bulb twas the result of thousands of tries that didn't work. When asked how he was able to persist after thousands of successive failures he reportedly said, "I never failed. Each experiment took me closer to success because it taught me what didn't work." Another inventor called that "failing forward."  

A less lofty but possibly more powerful statement of this point was attributed to Michael Jordan: “I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”  I think part of the problem is that the term failure seems so final. Failure isn't final unless you surrender and stop trying (which sometimes is a prudent thing to do). "

The point is that unsuccessful efforts (that's better than failure) are to be expected when we are learning new things or pursuing accomplishments that are inherently difficult. This positive (but accurate) mindset can make all the difference - not only by improving our chances of success (there are no guarantees) but by preventing painful feelings of inadequacy or failure that have a major negative impact on the quality of your life.