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Failure is your Friend

by Paul Buckley
17 replies
Fact: Thomas Edison failed to produce a working electric light bulb thousands of times before he finally succeeded.

Fact: Everybody knows that Babe Ruth was the king of home runs for many years before Hank Aaron came along. What few people know is that Babe Ruth held the record for striking out, over 1300 times, until Reggie Jackson took the crown. Reggie Jackson struck out 2597 times, hard to believe for a man who maintained a career .262 batting average and hit 563 home runs.


Many aspiring internet marketers dash about, trying several 'systems' and business models only to end up failing and giving up.

While success usually involves getting some education and maybe having some talent in your field; the most important ingredient is just continuing to step up to the plate and swinging for the bleachers.

In the end you'll learn a little bit each time from swinging and missing so that each time you come up to bat you're more likely to hit that home run.
#failure #friend
  • Profile picture of the author gxd5
    Failure is your friend like an asswhup teaches you to fight.

    LEARNING is your friend. If you continuously fail without learning anything, you are just a loser. Failure can show you what you need to learn. But YOU have to learn it. If you can learn without failing - by looking at someone elses example for instance - you can succeed just as quickly.

    It's dangerous to get into a mind set that teaches you that failure is something beneficial. Whenever I do something, I do it with the intention of succeeding. If I fail, I want it to hurt. I don't want to think, yay, I failed! The sting of failure is one of the great motivators to succeed.

    Failure is also a choice. You have to choose to fail. As long as you are STILL FIGHTING, you HAVE NOT failed yet. You are still in the game. You can still win. Cultivating that kind of tenacity is what helps get you over the line.

    Overall, I think it's dangerous to equate failure with something good. Failure is something that happens. In and of itself, it is neither your friend nor your enemy. What YOU do about determines what it is.

    My $0.02

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    • Profile picture of the author Paul Buckley
      Originally Posted by gxd5 View Post

      Failure is also a choice. You have to choose to fail. As long as you are STILL FIGHTING, you HAVE NOT failed yet. You are still in the game. You can still win. Cultivating that kind of tenacity is what helps get you over the line.
      This was kind of the point I was trying to make. You've made it better
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      "Wise men speak because they have something to say; fools because they have to say something." -Plato

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      • Profile picture of the author Aronya
        A lion, a donkey and a fox are hunting rabbits. At the end of the day, they have a huge pile of rabbits. The lion turns to the donkey and says, "Go divide up the rabbits."

        After a while, the donkey returns and says, "I've divided up the rabbits."

        The lion takes one look at the 3 equal piles of rabbits, then turns and kills the donkey. He then tells the fox to divide up the rabbits.

        After a while the fox returns. "I've divided up the rabbits."

        The lion looks to see one huge pile of rabbits, and one lone, skinny rabbit next to the big pile. He turns to the fox and says, "How'd you learn to count so well?"

        The fox replies, "I learned it from the donkey."

        How do you want to learn YOUR lesson?
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        • Profile picture of the author gxd5
          Originally Posted by Aronya View Post

          A lion, a donkey and a fox are hunting rabbits. At the end of the day, they have a huge pile of rabbits. The lion turns to the donkey and says, "Go divide up the rabbits."

          After a while, the donkey returns and says, "I've divided up the rabbits."

          The lion takes one look at the 3 equal piles of rabbits, then turns and kills the donkey. He then tells the fox to divide up the rabbits.

          After a while the fox returns. "I've divided up the rabbits."

          The lion looks to see one huge pile of rabbits, and one lone, skinny rabbit next to the big pile. He turns to the fox and says, "How'd you learn to count so well?"

          The fox replies, "I learned it from the donkey."

          How do you want to learn YOUR lesson?

          Moral of this story? Be the Lion
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        • Profile picture of the author peato
          I have learned many thigns which don't work. That is in RL work and also for IM. Whether getting to hitting a few singles or a home run or two, my preferences is not to have so many outs.
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  • Profile picture of the author Fernando Veloso
    Wise words Paul. Those who never give will hit it right on the spot, sooner or later.
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    People make good money selling to the rich. But the rich got rich selling to the masses.
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  • Profile picture of the author Colin Evans
    Failing hurts - I have no idea how many times I've failed and wanted to give up, especially recently.

    Sometimes I think I should take the easy way out and quit IM, but my pride won't let me - I'll make it big or die trying!

    BTW - I earn enough online to live without getting a job, but not enough yet to play like I want to...
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  • Profile picture of the author artwebster
    In the UK, if you were trying to teach this to children in school you would be tarred and feathered and run out of town on a rail!

    The UK is the only place I know where competition is banned from schools. There are many schools that will not entertain any activity (chess or football for example) where there is a winner and a loser. Losing, according to the powers that be, lowers childrens' self esteem and damages their ego.

    As for failure - until children leave school and get smacked in the face by reality, failure does not exist. Just look at the school exam results - everybody passes it's just that some pass with a slightly higher margin than others.
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    You might not like what I say - but I believe it.
    Build it, make money, then build some more
    Some old school smarts would help - and here's to Rob Toth for his help. Bloody good stuff, even the freebies!

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    • Profile picture of the author ehicks727
      Originally Posted by artwebster View Post

      The UK is the only place I know where competition is banned from schools. There are many schools that will not entertain any activity (chess or football for example) where there is a winner and a loser. Losing, according to the powers that be, lowers childrens' self esteem and damages their ego.
      It's not just the UK. The US is in the same situation. Everyone gets a trophy just for participating. I read that large corporations are having to change their management styles to accommodate Generation-Y'ers. They have to give bonuses simply for showing up on time to work! This is not a joke!

      off-topic: This forum thread should be presented to our government... LET THE BANKS FAIL!! Quit bailing out all these failing businesses... what lesson are they learning?
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  • Profile picture of the author msoon2k
    what ever happened to the line " Failure is not an option ! "
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    • Profile picture of the author Aronya
      Originally Posted by msoon2k View Post

      what ever happened to the line " Failure is not an option ! "
      It failed.
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  • Profile picture of the author SiteSeller52
    Some serious thoughts for those who are having a hard time right now.
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  • Profile picture of the author Adaptive
    Great thread. Folks like Edison and Ruth tried over and over to fulfill one very clear, very definite goal with a specific measurement of success: turn electricity into light; hit more home runs. Someone who tried to invent the light bulb and become the home run king would probably fail forever at both ventures.

    Regards,
    Allen
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  • Profile picture of the author blogonator
    In all my years of Internet Marketing, this is the first time i have ever heard that donkeys hunt rabbits. Have they actually evolved into carnivores? Or am i missing something here?
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    Hasta la WinVista, Baby!

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  • Profile picture of the author artwebster
    This reminds me of an address I had to give to a group of students.

    They had been given all the usual b.s. about being positive and over-coming failure.

    We had a long discussion after my address on two statements that I based my rebuttals of these two concepts.

    1) It is absolutely impossible to make a negative statement

    2) You can never fail because you will always succeed in either doing what you intended to do or discovering how not to do it.

    Donkeys hunt rabbits because they are fun to play with - you don't always hunt to eat, you know.
    Signature

    You might not like what I say - but I believe it.
    Build it, make money, then build some more
    Some old school smarts would help - and here's to Rob Toth for his help. Bloody good stuff, even the freebies!

    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[683662].message }}

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