Success/Failure

[cabinetman]

Some years back I attended a seminar for business owners (which included a free lunch ). There was a discussion about success and failure. I thought I would put this up for comments.

If all that is in the mind is striving for success, without considering the avenues of failing, failure can be inevitable.

If the effort is to prevent failure, success could be a natural order.
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[drillman88]

My Dad taught me some aspects of failure are ok as long as you learn from the experience and you knew something was not completly outside your limitations when you attempted it.
On something of a major scale, gather as much information and advice as possible before starting to get an idea of the skills needed and obstacles involved. Then look at it realistically and see if it something you can successfully do.
On smaller things still do the research if needed but if it is something that can be easily fixed or replaced, what you can learn probably is worth more than what you messed up.

He also taught me to watch other peoples failures and success to learn from them as well.

[herb fellows]

On a lighter note, one of my favorite quotes from that noted statesman Homer Simpson:

Trying is the first step towards failure.

[leehljp]

My perspective on success and failure is a little different.

In my work, one of our phrases is "allow them the freedom to fail". Failure is not seen as failure in "skunkworks" and among driven/highly motivated people, especially in areas in which "discovery and cutting edge innovation" pays a great reward.

Having the 'freedom to fail' means one won't be punished or chastised for trying, experimenting, exercising creativity in a pursuit to advance ones purpose in new and leading industries. This usually is in cutting edge technology and innovation industries but does work in other areas also (such as my work in church expansion.)

Also, if the the rewards or credits are distributed to the one taking the chance as well as the one funding, risk taking becomes more calculated and focused. Highly motivating among creative, driven and focused people.

[germdoc]

Hmmm...I don't know. I have read a lot of biographies of successful people in every field. (Just finished one on Louis Armstrong.) It seems to me they never consciously entertain the possibility of failure. The KNOW they are going to succeed.

They do have failures along the way, but they view them as minor detours on the road to their ultimate goal.

My thought is that giving too much attention to fear of failure sets one up for choosing safe pathways throughout life, which are unlikely to lead to dramatic success.

[cgallery]

Hmmm...I don't know. I have read a lot of biographies of successful people in every field. (Just finished one on Louis Armstrong.) It seems to me they never consciously entertain the possibility of failure. The KNOW they are going to succeed.

I've met countless people that know they are going to succeed and yet, most of them don't.

They do have failures along the way, but they view them as minor detours on the road to their ultimate goal.

My thought is that giving too much attention to fear of failure sets one up for choosing safe pathways throughout life, which are unlikely to lead to dramatic success.

I've read many of the same books, and I'd have to say my takeaway is a little different.

My thought after reading most of them is, "nice guys don't finish first."

[germdoc]

I've meet countless people that know they are going to succeed and yet, most of them don't.

I've read many of the same books, and I'd have to say my takeaway is a little different.

My thought after reading most of them is, "nice guys don't finish first."

I agree with both of these statements. Most people who think they're gonna win first place don't, but everyone who comes in first had to start out thinking that way.

Re' the second point: success breeds its own rules to some extent, or so many "successful" people think (Bernie Madoff, John Edwards, etc.--the list is endless). I do think it's true that great men (in the non-gender sense) have great flaws. I have read biographies of Patton, Grant, Lincoln, Jefferson, Eisenhower, Faulkner, Miles Davis, etc., and I have read nothing that disproves this. The only issue is how destructive the flaws are.

[leehljp]

I've meet countless people that know they are going to succeed and yet, most of them don't.

You must have been watching the American Idol interviews!

[dewi1219]

You must have been watching the American Idol interviews!

I was thinking the same exact thing...

[leehljp]

Motivators to successful thinking:

• Many people focus so much on being a success- that they forget to give enough attention to the work.

• Formula for success: ↓↑→↓↑→ Every time you fall down, get up and keep moving forward.

• Our success didn't come out of a computer. It came out of the sweat glands of our coaches and players.

• Plans don't succeed, You do!

• Henry Ford: "You can't build a reputation on what you are going to do."

• Be a Thermostat - Not a Thermometer!

• GOOD is the enemy of BEST.

• VISION: The only way to discover the limits of the possible is to go beyond them into the impossible.

• Nothing will ever be attempted if all possible objections must first be overcome!

• Ideas will always be Ideas unless you put them into Action!

• ENTHUSIASM: A worker without enthusiasm is like an automobile without gasoline.

• A man who wants to lead the orchestra must turn his back to the crowd.

• Attitude is Contagious! Is yours worth catching?

• If the ladder is not leaning against the right wall, every step we take just gets us to the wrong place faster. We may be very busy, we may be very efficient, but we will also be truly effective only when we begin with the end in mind. - Covey
Evaluate Everything to achieve the End Vision!

• Anything Important in the End . . . Should be introduced in the Beginning!

• In all of my years in business, I have found that people in meetings tend to agree on decisions that, as individuals, they know are dumb!

• A ship in the harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are made for!

• Lao Tsu 2000 years ago:
"Leaders are best when people scarcely know they exist,
not so good when people obey and acclaim them,
worst when people despise them.
...Of good leaders who talk little, . . when their work is done, . . their task fulfilled,
the people will all say . . . 'We did this ourselves'"

[Eagan]

Variations on Edison

How can anyone discuss success and failure and not invoke Edison?

"I have not failed, I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work."

"Results! I have gotten a lot of results. I know several thousand things that won't work."

"We have only found 586 ways that won't work and won't have to be tried again. Soon, we will find one that does. "

"I have not failed 700 times. I have not failed once. I have succeeded in proving that those 700 ways will not work."

"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. "

"Failed? — why we haven't failed, we only know the thousands of ways that won't work."

"Everything comes to him who hustles while he waits"

[Hoover]

I used to work in a business that supplied industrial paint to commercial concerns. One brand we sold was Rustoleum primer #734. The story behind calling the paint #734, the inventor failed 733 times before he succeeded.

[phi1l]

The surest way to succeed is to not define success until you get there

[master53yoda]

Man's progression in any form you want to look at has motive steps and corrective steps. we start out heading for the first qoal get part way and do a litle stumble back, we then look at where we are at and head for the next goal. we put everything we've got into it and get there most times. after we get there we bounce around a while and get stable and take off for the pie in the ski goal. we bounce up there and get a big head and waste to much then find out we can't hold it and fall back to are nice stable spot we were in and lick our wounds and get our ducks in a row and go at it again and the next advance is much like getting to are first goal and life repeats itself from there.

my view of things worth looking at.

[leehljp]

The surest way to succeed is to not define success until you get there

I like that! How true! I have seen more real "failures" by people who seek and write out formulas for success and follow that step by step, only to find that when they get to the end - the pot of gold has moved.

The problem is that success is usually achieved by following principles, not step-by-step lists. This is hard for some people to fathom. Some of our leadership teams have been the type that demanded that successes be "written-down in detail step-by-step" for for others to duplicate. Talk about failures from which little was learned!

In the innovation, creation, discovery, invention field - from a pure Luck stand point - One time success happens; second time success is chancy, third time is rare . . . Except when principles are followed.

Successful Principles: nebulous, vague set of rules that involve intuitive, deductive and observant reasoning skills to determine the course of action at any particular point. The reason - the path to success changes with changing environments, objects and time.

Successful Step-by-step lists - generally good for one time, one result, repeatable but if market or target changes, it no longer works. (This is where the old adage of Albert Einstein becomes true: "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results".