Famous Failures

There is nothing to fear but fear itself

The world is full of famous failures:

James Dyson

He famously tried to develop his famous vacuum cleaner 5000 times. This means that he failed 4999 times. What would have happened to him if he had given up on the 4998th time? Failure just was not an option for him. He just kept going until the end result was the right one and he had the design which was right.

Even then, he failed to get anyone to accept his new design! No-one wanted it. They did not want to manufacture it, they did not want to distribute it.

It is only by going through this type of failure that we now have the Dyson Vacuum Cleaner.

No-one wanted it here, so he went to Japan, where it won an award. He has his own manufacturing company, he has a knighthood. He did not face the fear, and rejection and failure by hiding in his room, shivering under the duvet. Perhaps for him, it was not a failure, but just another step towards his goal.

The way we survive massive failures like this, is by having self belief. By not letting our reactions go overboard when we have failed.

Do not forget that the world and our view of the world is very much made up of how we ourselves perceive it.

If someone is walking along the street and something terrible happens to them. What happens? Let us say that they fall over, or they do a huge sneeze which causes all the snot to erupt from their noses. For the person, this might be a hugely humiliating experience because they are the superstars in their own world. But for other people around them, who are also the superstars in their own worlds, it is just something minor happening to someone walking past.

It could be a short anecdote when they get home and tell their friends, but that is all.

Re-examine your failure and see what you have learned. Is it just a question of trying again somewhere else? Do you have to adjust something? Re-write? re-design?

From our failures sometimes, come our best successes.

How to Survive Failure

Failure is one of the most important things in life. If it isn't in the top three, then it is definitely up there in the top ten. Everyone has to fail as often as they can and as early as they can.

Consider the person who sails through life in their younger years. They live in a loving home where everything they do has a selection of admirers standing 'ooohing' and 'aaahing' and clapping their hands.

School does not test them too much and they fly high at college. This person's first bitter taste of failure could come as late as university, in a job, or in a relationship. What do they do? They have (gulp) failed at something. It will probably hit them quite hard. It might even stop them doing anything else for a while.

Because, dear friend, it is how we handle failure that determines how we live.

Consider everything that we do in life. It is how we recover from the trips and falls which will define who we are. If you fall off a bicycle, you have to get back on if you want to learn to ride.

If you fall off and then think to yourself: 'Oh no! I've failed, I will never, ever, never do that again.' Well, there you go, there will be no bike rides for you for ever more.

It is the same in spreadbetting. If you are an individual who wants to make money on the stock exchange or money markets, then your failures are the most important thing which bring meaning to your life.

It is not the wins. It's never the wins. You won? Oh good, you won before too - well done. Do it again.

You lost? You mean you failed? Oh no, you loser. What will you do now? Will you go and buy a paper bag to hide your head in shame? It is actually how you recover and the strategy you use as you start to lose that decides whether you are a failure or a winner.

The feelings which are attached to losing and failing can be some of the deepest and most profound ones that we feel. They can be feelings of guilt, of shame, of fear tinged with regret. Depending on the magnitude of your failure, they can be very powerful feelings of rejection and of never wanting to have to feel like this again.

Luckily, because of the mass media in the world in which we live, we are surrounded by both winners and losers. And the losers that we get to see each day in the newspapers and on TV are of the most spectacular kinds. Politicians, celebrities, TV pundits, other people in the news are always doing something silly and failing to do their jobs or failing to spot the obvious.

I say 'luckily' because some of the people who are in the headlines are some of the most resilient people in the world. It is often possible to see someone fail dramatically. To see them fail with an earth-shatteringly, devastatingly, crippling blow. And then, in the next month, or next year, they are back! Younger looking, more groomed, with something new to say, or a detailed description of why they lost it all in a new book out today.

We see failed marriages played out in the newspapers, failed parents, failed careers and businesses, but it does not mean that the person themselves is a failure. It is true that many people do sink without a trace never to be seen again. But the survivors can give us all a very good example.

The next time you feel a failure or a flop, sit and think about the latest politician scandal or sportsman coverage in the papers and put your little problem into perspective. Think to yourself, how much do I want this? If the answer comes out 'not that much actually', then move on. But if you think, ' I really really want to do this', then get up, brush the dust off your clothes and off you go - try, try, try again!!!