Failure is really not a word in my vocabulary. While I might have a fear of success, I never think about failure. It was brought to my attention in a workshop I took, Magical Business Builders Playground, that we fail all the time. If you think about it, Thomas Edison is quoted as saying, ““I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” He also said, “Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.”
I have been in Network Marketing off and on for probably 20 years. Believe me; I have had some major failures for which I had my senior partner say to me that I was destroying my business with what I was doing. Have you ever had this type of conversation with your senior partner? I found that there were two emotions: 1) You are so angry that you quit or 2) You are so devastated that you quit. Now if you follow Edison’s words, you could use this failure as a lesson on what you don’t want to do again.
With this in mind, why, when my coach gave me the assignment to write about failure, did I have a really hard time trying to find a time I truly failed? Perhaps it is because I don’t perceive these situations as failures. Let me tell you a story.
I was in the Army. As a platoon officer for a women’s basic training company, I had to teach such stimulating topics as “Awards and Decorations / Bugle Calls.” Can you think of a more boring subject to teach recruits who are running on little or no sleep? My expectation was that they would all fall asleep and I was home free.
This group of women, however, was really early in their training and didn’t have the sleep deprivation of those who were close to graduation. So, they listened intently to what I had to say and asked questions. I was not anticipating that at all.
I was supposed to teach this verbatim from the lesson plan and to make matters worse, I had an evaluator in the class too. I knew I was not ready for an evaluation. First of all, I had been told early on in my life that I should never stand up in front of folks and speak / teach. Already, I was not feeling too good about myself and I just knew this senior officer was going to be disappointed and throw me out of the platoon officer position.
Stay tuned and I show you how to turn failure into an incredible success.
Something else I have learned as a business woman is to ask for what you want. If you loved what you just read, this content is not for free. As a form of payment, I am asking you to comment or share this on Facebook or tweet about it on Twitter.
Linda Patten, MBA, BSN, RN has over 30 years of experience leading women to success in building and achieving their dreams. She turns networking marketing women from product sellers to leaders of highly functioning teams. To learn more about her innovative programs, click on Contact Us.
