Have You Failed as Many Times as These Success Stories?

October 8, 2007

Mistakes are a great tool for helping you achieve your goals. I should know - I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve “failed”.
In fact, almost 14 years ago, I hit rock bottom and I didn’t even believe I’d live another decade, let alone achieve anything worthwhile. If you want to know what went wrong, check out my updated “about me” page.

Nowadays, I don’t dwell on things, because I realise that mistakes are just stepping stones on the path to success. And if you don’t believe me, you might want to consider these famous failures:

This company who went bankrupt 3 times. Their first failure was due to gambling on the price of sugar. And now they make billions in net profits every year. Their name is Pepsi Cola.

A famous politician had a life full of failures, including several political failures, two bankrupt businesses, and a nervous breakdown His name was Abraham Lincoln, and the rest is history.

You would expect that forgetting to put a reverse gear in their first car would lead to the kiss of death for a car manufacturer. So, it’s not surprising that Henry Ford went bankrupt twice before getting it right.

The woman who turned up at the bank wearing jeans and without a business plan was turned down for a loan. But that didn’t stop Anita Roddick from going on to build The Body Shop.

And if they can do it, so can you.

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Comments

6 Responses to “Have You Failed as Many Times as These Success Stories?”

Asako on October 8th, 2007 8:41 pm

Catherine, you are a real achiever. I can not believe the story of your ex-husband. It must have been really terrible to have a partner like that. And I am so glad that you are now in the new chapter of your life with a new partner, your children and a successful business. Please continue sharing your inspirational stories with all of us. I feel humbled, and you really make me work hard.
Ricardo on October 8th, 2007 8:55 pm

What an inspirational story you deserve to be a success,many people would have given up.I know you will acheive many great things. Keep up the good work.
Ian on October 9th, 2007 4:04 am

Cath,

You really are inspiring. I fully expect to see your business thrive.

Your life and business experience is very clear and based upon the real world to every reader. And by following it, few can fail to be a success.

Mistakes were written into our staff manual as a requirement for the job.

People are encouraged to make mistakes and applauded for doing so. While this may sound counter-intuitive to many, you want people to try, not feel afraid to do so.

Of course, I;d have to intervene if I saw a corker of a mistake about to happen, but I’d have to share the experience of why.

But I’ve also let people make mistakes when I’ve seen them about to happen - mainly because it’s great experience and learning. And having experienced a mistake and not been shot for it, it really helps people move on with confidence.

A recurring theme in your blog is learning. You read an awful lot. You quote inspirational people and the experiences and mistakes of others.

And by focusing on mistakes, the seeds of success are sown.

Books seem like hard work to many people. In fact, they are the lazy person’s short-cut to success.

I’ve done this myself - embarked upon something and spent weeks or months perfecting something someone else has already done.

Now, I save myself a huge amount of time and effort by simply reading about how to do it.

For example, I don’t know how Google AdWords works. So I read about it. I appointed a coach to run our initial campaigns - not because I can’t do it myself, but because I want to shorten those mistakes even more.

The book has helped appoint someone I know has the knowledge. Now I can broaden our marketing to other areas, while ensuring the campaign is pretty much right first time.

I also used books and an expert to launch our new web-site written entirely on a blog engine.

Again, educating yourself - and admitedly alot of that education came from yourself and the experiences of your blog.

I’m a great believer in strengths and weaknesses. A friend of mine started his business less than 5 years ago and built his whole business around NOT doing anything he weak at. He does 100% of what he is strong at and ensures that anything he is less than perfect at is simply not tackled by him or anyone who is weak at it.

He outsources or employs an expert in each area.

So I am trying to follow that advice and not be tempted to do anything I am capable of doing, but not capable of sustaining or doing the absolute best job at.

So mistakes are something I am very much into! And your story and experiences continue to inspire me to learn and continue to do so.

I, for one, am a fan and will keep coming back and recommending you to others.
WarriorBlog on October 9th, 2007 4:25 am

Wow Ian what a respond :O

Anyway - I really think that success is beyond the line of failure. The more you fail, the more chance you have next time of know what not to do and more likely to succeed.

Inspiring post and I like you using examples to explain
cathlawson on October 10th, 2007 6:55 am

Hi Asako, Ricardo, Ian and Sean - thank you all for your kind words. I really did screw up sometimes and made bad decisions. But, I think I’ve learned a lot from them.

And I think the main problem was, I almost gave up - especially when I was ill.

If I was advising anyone now, in a similar situation, I would say never give up on yourself, no matter how bad things seem. Get help, if you’re ill, and don’t isolate yourself. Don’t stay in a bad relationship. And live the life you want - not the one others want you to live, because you only get one chance.

And lastly - it’s never too late to change things.
Susan Suarez on October 11th, 2007 10:51 pm

It’s stories like the ones you posted, that keep me going!