Demotivation - Dealing With Failure

We hear it all the time; "Fail again. Fail better." "If you want to succeed, double your failure rate" "You cannot be successful without failure" and so forth. These are the words of some of the most successful people in history and now, but what are they on about? Why must we fail in order to be successful? Where does failure fit into the picture?

This is a very good question, and one I have been asking a lot myself lately.

So why so much emphasis on failure? No businessman, newlywed couple, or university student will tell you that failure is one of their objectives in their route to success.

But it seems that highly successful people seem to think so, and boldly emphasise it, repeatedly. Is failure some sort of exotic elixir to reach success? The logic seems to counter our conventional wisdom.

But perhaps experience is a better teacher than logic and they may just be on to something:

1. So what is failure?

Failure, by definition, can be described as the opposite of success; missing the mark, not meeting a desirable goal or intended target.

As a noun, failure can be described as the "non-performance of something due, required or expected"

In speech:

• The car experienced engine failure.
• He felt like a failure when he wasn't accepted into law school.
• The business project was a complete failure.
• She had failed at her marriage

Two types of failures

1. Utter failure

2. Temporary failure

Both are one in the same, but by illustration they are quite different:

1. Utter failure

This sort is usually the hardest to deal with, It has the highest potential for depression and demotivation.

John had a great idea for a business, his family and friends greatly endorsed and supported it, It was a good idea. When the time was right he left his job, put his home as collateral and invested his life savings into the project.

He ran the business successfully for 4 years and was making good gains.

Things did not go as planned however, in year 5 the warehouse he had purchased for inventory burnt down due to acts of nature and he lost 90% of his stock and almost all his capital in assets.

The insurance company failed to cover the losses and he was left broke, and on the brink of homelessness.

2. Temporary failure

This type of failure can be used synonymously with 'setback', Its outcomes are usually not that severe and can be viewed upon as lessons:

Peter also had a great idea for a business. He invested large sums of money into it and ran it successfully for 4 years. In year 5 his business started to grow and the tasks became too much for him to handle on his own, so he hired help, and enter his lifelong friend Bob;

Bob turned out to be not the best manager; he was the cause of a lot of staff resignations that year and during his tenure the company lost a quarter of its key clientelle and the business profits slumped.

Peter had failed his business, temporarily, he could find an easy remedy to the problem and learn from his error in judgement.

John on the other hand had it harder. He experienced utter failure and defeat. He had to start over or move on to a new project. He had more work to do, more to deal with, he had to get his life back together.

Both men had failed, but on different scales, both were left demotivated and discouraged, neither were failures however.

Failure was an event that happened to them which both could learn and grow from. A fitting word of encouragement to one of them who fell into depression would be "Just because you failed once at something does not mean you will fail at everything." ~ Marilyn Monroe

2. What we learn from failure

Maya Angelou once said "You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats so you can know who you are, what you can rise from, and how you can still come out of it."

Failure truly is a humbling experience, but it is an excellent tutor.

If we can learn from failure it teaches us much, things we thought we knew about ourselves but actually didn't. Through quite self-reflection and honest introspection in our lowest times we find out who we are, our passions, and what we are good at.

Failure says "You're not as good of a salesman as you think you are, so improve" or "You're a bad financial manager, get advice or learn how to budget."

Failure steers us in the right direction, it says "That's not the route you should take, take this route instead."

And slowly through a zigzag motion of several setbacks and dead ends we arrive at our destination, battered and bruised, be we arrive nonetheless; stronger, wiser, more confident and bolder than we were before.

In engineering, the greatest inventions come about after a large degree of failure, for instance Thomas Edison demonstrates this well when he says: "I have not failed. I have found 10,000 ways that won't work."

Failure can be progress.

When the engine fails, we learn that something is wrong with it, and fix it so we avoid imminent disaster. Failure teaches us to plan for failure so we minimise the risk, thereby getting toward our goal much quicker.

3. How we learn from failure

Human beings learn in many ways -- through education, the internet, people, literature, experience and so on. But primarily our brain is hardwired to learn in one of two ways; play and errors in judgement;

Childhood

If you've ever stuck your finger in an electric wall plug or touched a burning stove as a child, you learnt quickly not to do that again. The feeling of pain discouraged repeated behaviour as the experience of it was unpleasant and undesirable.

In early development toddlers learn exclusively through play; by touching, tasting, feeling, smelling and hearing the world around them they learn what the world is about. They learn to walk through trial and error and after many many falls.

When the toddler grows up they continue to learn through play and repeated failure. They fall, cry, climb, and fall some more until they can successfully and skillfully climb up that tree.

To adulthood the same process continues, we never stop playing. Games just take on new and different forms.

When we make mistakes we learn, much like in our youth. Failure is unpleasant yes, it is uncomfortable. It is undesirable and is an inconvenient hindrance in our path to our goals, but it is necessary. To fail is to learn, to learn is to grow. To grow is to progress.

4. How we deal with failure

Once upon a time there were twin boys born of an alcoholic father. In adulthood one became an alcoholic and the other a successful person. When asked why he was such the alcoholic responded "What would you expect, my father was an alcoholic." When the other was asked the same question he also responded "What would you expect, my father was an alcoholic." Both had choices and both chose a path.

Dorothy, was abused by her father throughout her childhood. Her father passed away when she was 20 but throughout her adult life she blamed him for everything that happened to her; her depression, her ill health, her poor relationships, her finances, her poor social relations etc.

Her father had passed away 25 years prior but his presence was still felt by her and he still held power over her life, or so she thought, for actually the power was in her mind. There are many stories of people who went through similar challenges and great difficulties in their early life but made a success out of themselves by turning their situation around. Our success is determined by how we deal with failure, either we can let it beat us or we can let it teach us.

5. Maximising On failure

There are certain lessons that can only be learnt from hard failure. There are countless stories in history where people used bad situations and turned it to good, people who maximised on their failure and seized the opportunity and did something great in their plight, to name just a few;

John Milton did his best writing while blind, sick and poor

Beethoven composed his greatest work after he went deaf

Daniel Dafoe, author of Robinson Crusoe wrote his book at his lowest, as a failure in prison.

Sometimes our greatest feats await us in our lowest times. It is all about how we deal with the situation that counts. Either we can be glad we went through the experience and came out bigger better and stronger, or we can dabble in self pity and depression.

So you got pregnant and you don't know what to do. Or you just failed the year in school and you feel like a failure. Or your marriage didn't work and you feel like you've failed everybody, including yourself. Or perhaps your business idea didn't work and you've just let down a lot of people and their families. Does that make you a failure? Does that mean you have failed at life? Does that mean your world is about to end? No. No. No.

This too shall pass. Girdle up your loins. Straighten your upper back. Stand fast. You were born a champion, a winner. Champions lose sometimes, this is but a minor defeat. You will get through it. As hard as it seems, you will get through it. You will come out stronger and wiser than you were before. You cannot give up, hang in there, these are your memories, your scars, your passions, your testimony of living. Memories you will keep and cherish forever.

When asked why she spoke so much on failure, J.K. Rowling responded:

"Simply because failure means a stripping away of the inessential, I stopped pretending to myself that I was anything other than what I was, and began to direct all my energy into finishing the only work that mattered to me.

Had I really succeeded at anything else, I might never have found the determination to succeed in the one arena I believed I truly belonged. I was set free, because my greatest fear had been realized, and I was still alive, and I still had a daughter whom I adored, and I had an old typewriter and a big idea. And so rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life."

She continued...

"You might never fail on the scale I did, but some failure in life is inevitable. It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all - in which case, you fail by default."

Theodoore Roosevelt once said "Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs though checkered by failure, than to rank with those poor souls who neither enjoy nor suffer much because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat."

The Mind-set

It is said that when he [Sophocles,] was told of an impending invasion by the Persians, he tucked his head down and continued to plough. We imagine that to the news bearer his conversation went something like this "Theophilus, Must I too adorn sackcloth and throw ashes in appeal to the gods? If they will war then let be, it is for us to hope and deal with it as it comes. "

Problems can happen at any moment, nothing is guaranteed.

When they come we should see them as learning experiences. We should ask ourselves what can I learn from this that I will value in the future?

Rejection and failure, frustration and setbacks - all these things are fuels to our success. If you've ever been rejected you will know that passion that burns inside.

In one of his speeches Zig ziglar once said "on occasion you've been told that you can't do this or that, or have no skills or talent for this or that. If you overcame those negative comments and did what you were told you couldn't do, you smile at the memory of the satisfaction you gained by proving them all wrong. You didn't listen to what they said and succeeded in spite of and in some cases, because of their doubts of you"

Most success stories we hear validate that most people who "make it big" experience several failures on their way up. Every day is an opportunity to start over, and every failure can be a learning experience that prepares us for success.

Success is not final and failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts. ~ Winston Churchill

Quotes

" Most great people have attained their greatest success just one step after their greatest failure." ~ Napoleon Hill

" Discouragement and failure are two of the surest stepping stones to success." ~ Dale Carnegie

" Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently." ~ Henry Ford

"Every adversity, every failure, every heartache carries with it the seed to an equal or greater benefit." ~ Napoleon Hill

"If we will be quiet and ready enough, we shall find compensation in every disappointment." ~ Henry David Thoreau

You can connect with me on twitter @PaulGwamanda

Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Nhlalonhle_Paul_Gwamanda/1330190

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/7333934

Top 5 Entrepreneurship Lessons From Most Successful Entrepreneurs | Life...

The Life of an Entrepreneur in 90 Seconds- Best Motivational Video for E...

Startup Marketing - 10 Things to Do in Your First 90 Days

So you got yourself involved with a startup company. It may have happened by circumstance or by choice. You're either a founder of one of the first employees. You either envision your concept as a potential single to be flipped in 3-4 years, or a grand slam that will allow you to socialize with the likes of Brin, Bezos and Cuban.

Awesome. We all love a good startup story.

Unless you've got an inherently viral concept on your hands (and by the way, keep in mind that there have only been about 5 inherently viral products introduced over the past 5-7 years), you're going to need to put a significant emphasis on marketing. I wrote an earlier post about the necessity of bringing marketing expertise to your internal/external team, but this post isn't designed to belabor that point.

You're going to need to do certain things during your first 90 days to survive and show some traction from a marketing standpoint. Why 90 days? It's simple. Business plans are great for fundraising and for attracting senior-level employees, but executing on a 5-10 year grand vision usually happens in pieces. I happen to believe that this execution is best broken down into 90-day pieces.

One caveat before we get into the list. All of the items below are tactics. Tactics that do not flow from a broader strategy usually fail at some point. Build a sound marketing strategy - identify goals, build your messaging, pinpoint target audiences - before you start getting tactical.

Here are the 10 marketing items every startup should consider executing within the first 90 days of operation:

1. Build a clean, easy to navigate website.

I know. Quite an "out of the box" statement. All I can say is that people still miss on this first step, and miss in an embarrassing way. Remember this - depending on which web genius you listen to, you have between 3-10 seconds just to convince a visitor to move further on your site.

And if you're a startup that doesn't think you need a web site at all, I wish you luck. No need to read further.

2. Create a blog, post quality content, and learn how to market it.

You're still reading this post because you find the content interesting and the site doesn't look half bad. You're here because you found the content via a search engine, another website, or perhaps a social media property like Twitter or LinkedIn.

If your website is your brochure (and hopefully it doesn't look like one), then your blog is your platform to express your ideas and distribute some of your marketing content.

3. Spend the time to do the basic SEO work, or have someone do it for you.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO), generally speaking, rarely will impact your business in the short-term. That being said, if anyone tells you that SEO is dead and you shouldn't worry about it, toss them out the window like the guy in the Bud Light commercial. Even the most basic SEO work, if done appropriately, will pay significant dividends eventually.

4. Do some public relations, or at a bare minimum issue a press release surrounding your launch.

Not every startup can afford to spend thousands of dollars a month on retaining a public relations agency, but that's not an excuse to ignore public relations. You can get a high quality press release written, distributed and pitched for as little as $1,500 - $2,000, even less if you do some of it yourself.

Is there a good reason NOT to announce your business? Afraid of a poor first impression on the media and consumers of your product? If so, you may be facing a product problem or a problem with other elements in your marketing mix.

5. Get involved in social media.

Notice that I didn't say to rush out, join all 10,000 social media properties and start posting. As always, with social media, my advice is to join, listen, learn, then post. Most startups join and post. They don't even acknowledge the listen and learn part. Startups are typically in a rush to show some traction, and unfortunately some investors judge traction based on Twitter followers, Facebook friends, and LinkedIn connections. That's just silly, almost as silly as the valuations those investors placed on the revenue-less companies of dot-com boom times.

6. Make your first customers raving fans, and squeeze everything you can out of them.

Those who have launched startups know that you rely on your immediate network for feedback and funding during the first stages of operation. Provide exceptional service to those customers, solicit as much feedback as possible, and then use those customers in press releases, case studies, testimonials, videos, etc. Of course, I would recommend asking for permission from those customers first.

7. Send an email newsletter on a monthly basis if possible.

If you're executing on some of the items above and below, you'll have plenty of content for a basic email newsletter that updates customers, prospects, investors, media, friends and family on the company's progress.

Much like public relations, is there a good reason NOT to send a quality email newsletter to 500-2,000 people that have some level of interest in your business?

8. Install web analytics. Monitor it. Don't obsess over it.

Web analytics packages are a lot of fun. That may sound geeky, but once you've actually logged in and viewed all the cool stuff that is trackable on your website, you don't know.

Go ahead and get web analytics installed on your website. Tie it into pay-per-click advertising if you're doing any of that. Look at the results once a day or once a week, whatever makes you feel comfortable. Just don't get too caught up in why your site attracts more visitors from Idaho than Florida until you have enough data to make reasonable judgments.

9. Start considering distribution partners.

This is easier said than done. Unless you are pursuing the most unique target market in the history of the world, there are likely other companies that have already climbed that mountain and can claim thousands of customers in your target market. You need to start conversations with these types early, as partnership deals rarely happen quickly.

This should start during the 90-day period, but likely won't show results during those 90 days. That being said, imagine the marketing cost savings of reaching a partner's existing 2,000 customers vs. attempting to acquire those 2,000 customers through traditional marketing means.

10. Get organized and actually create your 90-day marketing plan.

Especially in a startup, whoever is responsible for marketing ought to also be one of the more organized people in your organization. You likely don't have a lot of marketing dollars to spend, and therefore you need to be extremely efficient with the tactics you execute. Disorganized people typically aren't very efficient.

Mike Sweeney is the Managing Partner of Right Source Marketing. Don't hesitate to drop Mike a comment on this post at the Marketing Trenches blog.

Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Michael_J_Sweeney/376222

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/2649796

HOW SUCCESSFUL PEOPLE THINK - Motivational Video

Programming your mind for success | Carrie Green | TEDxManchester

Mindset Tips To Become A Successful Entrepreneur

Photo by Bich Tran from Pexels

So why should you consider becoming an entrepreneur?

There are many reasons why you should consider taking that giant step and creating your own business.

Here are just a few of them:

1. Autonomy - Running your own business allows you to be in charge of your own destiny. It also helps you to avoid getting stuck in the "daily grind" or the "rat race". For many people running their own business lets them have a career that is self-sustaining.

2. Opportunity - Being an entrepreneur opens up a whole new world of opportunity for you. You will have the opportunity to do anything that you want in life. This means you can choose to spend your life changing the world for the better, or you can live the type of life you want. Few other career choices can offer this kind of opportunity.

3. Impact - Many people who work for other companies truly want to work hard and help that company to succeed, but few are actually able to have such an impact. When you run your own business everything you do will directly impact the company, which can be very rewarding.

4. Freedom - This is the answer most people will give if you ask them why they want to become an entrepreneur. For many people the idea of doing what they want and how they want to do is the most compelling reason to take the risk and run their own business. It is true- having freedom in life and career does make a huge difference!

5. Responsibility - When you run your own business you have the ability to be responsible to society and operate your business the way that you feel it should be run. This is especially true if you have the desire to help others or the world in general. If you work for someone else you may not be able to improve the world the way you want to, but if you are the boss you can.

6. Being your Own Boss - This is another common answer for why many people want to become entrepreneurs. If you are your own boss you can do things your way. You can make your own decisions, take your own risks and decide your own fate.

7. Time and Family - Depending on your specific goals in life, becoming an entrepreneur could give you the freedom of time and allow you to spend more of it with your family.

8. Creating a Legacy - If the idea of forging a lasting legacy is important to you then few other careers give you the opportunity to do so like operating your own business.

9. Accomplishment - If you have specific goals that you would like to accomplish in your life running your own business could help you to do so.

10. Control - For a lot of business owners the sense of security that comes with the ability to control your own work is a major reason to become an entrepreneur.

So you may ask what does it take to become an entrepreneur?

There are plenty of benefits of being an entrepreneur, but it is certainly no easy task to start your own business.

Successful entrepreneurs, that is to say those who are able to accomplish their goals, earn a successful living through their business and enjoy the many benefits of entrepreneurship, all have specific traits.

If you are considering taking the leap and following your entrepreneurship dreams then you will want to understand what these traits are so that you can instill the same traits in yourself.

This will help ensure that you are able to achieve your dreams.

Successful Entrepreneurs:

- Have passion and a lot of it
- Are tenacious
- Able to manage their fear of the unknown
- Have a grand vision
- Believe in themselves
- Are extremely flexible

- Are able to defy conventional wisdom
- Are willing to take risks in life

If you have these traits, or if you can teach yourself how to develop these traits within yourself, then your likelihood of becoming a successful entrepreneur will increase. In addition to these personality traits, all successful entrepreneurs possess a certain amount of skills.

Some Skills That Will Help You to Become a Successful Entrepreneur Include:

Focus - running your own business requires dealing with any number of factors on any given day. Successful business owners are able to pinpoint their focus onto accomplishing specific tasks and goals at specific times.

Resilience - it is a skill to be able to weather the various ups and downs of business without allowing them to destroy your focus. Truly successful entrepreneurs are able to continue traveling down the path of success even when the future looks bleak.

Management Skills - a successful company requires the right people and successful business owners need to know how to properly manage these people.

Long Term Vision - while it is easy to focus on what the company needs to do in the next several days or weeks to be successful, truly exceptional entrepreneurs (the ones who see real success in their business ventures) are able to plan years ahead of time.

Salesmanship - regardless of what type of company you are running, you need to be able to sell your vision to others in order to become successful. Entrepreneurs need to have great salesmanship skills whether they want to or not.

Self-reliance - this is one of the most important skills any entrepreneur can possess. It is vital for a business owner to trust that they can depend on themselves.

Self-reflection - the ability to pause, reflect and learn is a very valuable skill for the business owner. Entrepreneurs must be able to learn from their mistakes and reflect upon what they have learned in life.

Learning - the skill of earning knowledge is one that every successful business owner has. It is also a skill that they never stop developing.

To be successful in your entrepreneurial dreams you have to be able to learn from others. The best way to learn the skills of a successful business owner is to study the skills of successful entrepreneurs and then to grow those skills in yourself.

Below you can find some of my TOP SECRET TIPS!!!

- Always choose something you are passionate about!

Without passion, and a lot of it, your business dreams will become lost in the day to day grind of running a business. Take a look at the top ten most successful entrepreneurs and you will see that their passion is the number one driving force behind their success. There is no way to escape this fact- you simply must be passionate in order to achieve your goals!

- Starting with a Dream!

The best way to start a business is to take what you are passionate about and find a way to turn that into a business. You need to start with a dream.

If you don't have passion for your work then you won't have the motivation and energy to keep pushing through obstacles, you won't be willing to take the necessary risks required to succeed and you won't be able to sell your dream to others.

Start with your dreams and grow your business from there.

The unfortunate reality is that once a business reaches the beginning of its third year its chances of surviving drops dramatically. Only about 44% of businesses live to see their fourth year. Without the passion you derive from living your dream you won't have what it takes to survive year after year. This means that you should start your business from the ground up using your dream as a foundation.

Whatever your dream in life may be, you need to find a way to turn that dream into a business. If the foundation of your business is based on something that you are truly passionate about, then it will be much easier to grow that dream into a hugely successful business.

- Starting Your Dream Business

Once you have determined that you have the necessary traits, skills and passion to become an entrepreneur, the next step will be to start up your dream business.

Getting Started

Getting started with your dream business may be the easiest part of the process or it may be the hardest. It really depends on your specific situation. Some would-be entrepreneurs are raring to get started, while others are bogged down with doubts and procrastination.

- Avoid coming up with excuses why you shouldn't start your own business.

Once you have made the important decision that yes you want to become an entrepreneur, skip the excuses and start the process.

Avoid the quicksand that is known as procrastination.
Putting off the process of starting your business for any reason can lead to getting stuck in the mud. Avoid the process of procrastination at all costs.

- Do whatever it takes to motivate yourself to get started.

Doubt, fear, worry and a lack of purpose can all end up preventing you from getting your dreams going. Focus on why you want to become an entrepreneur (your passion) and use that to motivate yourself into taking those first few steps. The first couple of steps are the most important ones.

- Develop core beliefs.

Now is the time to develop your business's core beliefs. This will help you to create the right kind of company, one that matches your passion and motivates you to always move forward. Your business's core beliefs will be a major building block of it, so make sure that these beliefs are worthy.

They will also determine how you proceed to make decisions in the future and which direction the business takes your life.

Making the Shift from Employee to Boss Running your own business takes leadership.

For many new entrepreneurs it can be difficult to make the switch from employee to manager or boss.

There are ways that you can prepare yourself for this transition. For people who have built-in leadership skills this transition may be easier, but anyone with the proper drive and motivation can develop leadership skills.

More tips to be continued...

Many thanks for reading and visiting my page.

Stayed blessed & make money.

L.A. Wilson

L.A. Wilson aka L.million

How would you like to be financially free???? "SOUNDS GREAT RIGHT" "Would you be interested in making $2,500 - $50,000 PER MONTH

Check out this video to find out more:

[http://www.selfmadecareers.com]

http://plus.google.com/u/0/+OnpointLmillion14/

Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Lee_A_Wilson/2099342

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/8967041