“Success is measured by how high you bounce when you hit bottom.”—George S Patton
Most successful entrepreneurs consider failure as a ladder to reach success. The more they fail, more closer they get to success. Thomas Edison reflected upon his magical invention of the light bulb by saying, “I have not failed 10,000 times- I have successfully found 10,000 ways that will not work.” When you have this mindset and consider failure as an opportunity to improve and learn new things, then you are bound to succeed.
The best example is the founder of Alibaba Group, Jack Ma. Failure and Jack Ma are synonymous with one another. From his early school days to his professional career, failure was the only constant. He failed in school, performed poorly in college entrance exam and rejected by Harvard University 10 times. The story did not end there. He was also the only candidate to be rejected by KFC in job interview.
Fast forward to today, he is one of the most powerful, influential and richest business leaders in the world. Despite all the failures, he overcame all the odds. His shining example is a beacon of hope for anyone who wants to turn his failures into a success story. Here are seven effective ways that will help you turn the tables and convert your failure into success.
1. Learn From Your Own Mistakes
We all are humans and we all make mistakes. Even the most successful amongst us make mistakes but they learn from their mistakes and improve. More importantly, they ensure that the same mistakes are not repeated. Meanwhile, non-successful people continues to make mistakes and do not learn anything from it. Acknowledging your faults and learning from them is the first step towards converting failures into success.
2. Look For Positives
“Every cloud has a silver lining.” You might have heard this idiom countless times, right. Did you know what does it really means? It shows that bad times are not here to stay forever so instead of moaning about them, it is better to look for positives, even in the worst of situations. Steve Jobs was ousted from Apple, a company he co-founded. He looked at the positive aspect and founded Pixar that revolutionized the motion graphics and animation industry. If you focus on positives, you can spin positive outcomes from demoralizing defeats and failures.
3. Be Confident
If you want to succeed in life and career, you need perseverance, hard work and dedication. If a few initial failures can put a big dent in your confidence then you are destined to fail. Have faith in your abilities and be confident about what you do. No matter how grave the situation might be, you will not find slightest of shakiness in the confidence of successful people.
If you can keep your confidence level up even when things are not going your way, you can overcome every obstacle that comes in your way. Despite facing severe criticism from different circles regarding web design and new features, Mark Zuckerberg was confident that he was doing the right thing and stuck to his guns with Facebook.
4. Get Rid of Bad Habits
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”—Aristotle
Habits play a critical role in our success or failure. Good habits will take you one step closer to success while the bad habits will do the opposite. Monitor your behavior and habits and identify bad ones that are acting as a roadblock in your path to success. Once you identify bad habits, slowly get over them. Although, breaking a bad habit might not be the easiest thing to do but if you stays persistent, you will achieve success in getting rid of those bad habits. Once you remove all the obstacles, success is only a matter of time.
5. Take a Break
Probably the easiest way to bring back on track when things are not going your way is to take a break. Even if you are a workaholic, you should take a break because the work related stress and burnout might be getting to you, which is hampering your performance. You need to sideline yourself for a while or go on a vacation to get your batteries recharged again. Take some rest or some time off and you will return with much more energy. You could also get some time in solitude and you never know you might also come across an idea that will help you turn things around for your business.
6. Focus on the Possibilities
Couple of failures is enough to put anyone into his shell but not a successful entrepreneur. They will look for all the possibilities and opportunities that will help them to convert those failures into success stories. There are endless possibilities and business opportunities that you can capitalize on if you keep looking out for them. As Richard Branson says, “Business opportunities are like buses, there is always another one coming.”
7. New Beginnings
“Nothing is predestined. The obstacles of your past can become the gateways that lead to new beginnings.” –Ralph Blum
Going back to square one and starting all over again will send chills down your spine. It is a good option if things are not going your way. It provides you an opportunity to analyze your past and improve by going back to the drawing board. Did you know that Henry J Heinz was a salesman but turned a new leaf by forming the world’s famous ketchup brand. The same excitement, anticipation and stress associated with your first business will come back. It will drive you to overcome past failures because you have analyzed the mistakes and are in a much better position to avoid them this time around.
Conclusion
There is no denying that getting over failure is one of the most difficult things to do. You can convert your failures into success stories by following the advice given in this article. You can take inspiration from successful entrepreneurs who have faced failure. Did this article help you to get over failures and achieve success? Feel free to share it with us in comments section below.