Failure

Read the following definitions of Failure and you’ll know why we struggle with the idea.

Def.: falling short, inability to perform a normal function, lack of success, insufficient.

Ouch. Those are some harsh words. No wonder most of us are scared to fail. But it doesn’t have to be that way. I hope to challenge your attitude towards failure today. I’ll start by saying that many of the most successful individuals who ever lived were prolific failures.

How can this be?

Let’s start with a pretty cool guy named Thomas Edison. Ever heard of him? I’m sure you have. Most people know Mr. Edison as the inventor of the light bulb. This is true but did you also know he held 1,093 patents in his lifetime? He was actually one of the most prolific inventors this country has ever known. Sounds like a pretty successful guy, right? He was, but only because he was willing to fail so many times. He failed on more than 10,000 attempts on just the light bulb! Can you imagine how many times he failed in the process of his 1,093 patents? It’s not failure that matters, it’s our philosophy and attitude towards it.

Check out this quote by Mr. Edison. “If I find 10,000 ways something won’t work, I haven’t failed. I am not discouraged, because every wrong attempt discarded is another step forward.” Same failure, different attitude!

Let’s now tie in golf. I fail many, many times every time I tee it up. I fail to hit fairways. I fail to hit greens. I fail to make putts. I fail to hit chip shots close. Golf is a game of failures. And same goes for the pros on TV. Pros miss 3 foot putts. They miss greens from 40 yards. They hit shots in the water.

What is your attitude towards failure on and off the course? Does it stop you from moving forward or does it motivate you to get better? Or even worse, does the thought of failure keep you from even trying? This is the real danger. Imagine our world if everyone was so afraid of failure that nobody tried anything new. Progress wouldn’t even be a word because without failure the concept wouldn’t exist.

Would you like to shoot better scores? Start failing more! Go to the putting green and miss more putts than you make. Each one teaches you about the proper stroke. Learn to hit a new shot. You’ll fail miserably for a while but then what happens? You learn as you go and eventually you can do it. I’ve heard it called Failing Forward. What a great way to say it.

One more thought on failure and we’ll wrap up for today. Failure is a choice! Do you agree? I believe the only way to truly fail is to quit. And quitting is always a choice.

How will you handle failure from this point on? Only you get to decide!

Some people will fail to read this post and be stuck in failure until they do!!

See you later,

Mike Snyder

  ps – Go to YouTube and type in “Michael Jordan Failure Commercial.”       DIFFERENT ATTITUDE

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