24/02/2022
Learn From Your Success—Not Your Failures!
Have you ever heard one of those motivational stuff about how failure is a better teacher on how to succeed than success itself? I think I used to believe that too. But not anymore.
So I’m here to debunk that theory. I hope you learn one or two things. Alright let’s dive right in…
First of all, failure does not have anything more valuable to offer anyone than success.
My assertion is based on the same principle and reality that no one can give what they do not have. And no tour guide can take tourists where themselves have never been.
Or would you like to be one of the passengers in a vehicle whose driver does not know the road to your destination?
You see, failure is that tour guide who doesn’t know the way. Failure is that driver who doesn’t know the place! Else it won’t be failure in the first place.
Oh yes! The only value that failure brings to the table of discussion is that it teaches you the things that don’t work. It shows you how not to succeed. It tells you the things you shouldn’t do. (If you think that is valuable, wait until you see what success has to offer.)
But you and I know that what we need is not how not to succeed but how to succeed.
What we need to succeed isn’t what not to do to succeed, but what to do in order to succeed.
Hear me: that you know what you shouldn’t do to succeed does not automatically mean that you know what you should do to succeed. Read that again!
That is the crippling limitation of learning from your failures! It teaches you a whole bunch of negative stuff that add little or no value to your success story.
But if you want to tip the scales in your favour—in life or business—then make success your favourite teacher.
Learn from your success. You already know what you did that succeeded. Rinse and repeat to produce more success.
Can anything beat that? I wonder!
Success is the tour guide that knows the road. The driver that knows the destination. Don’t ditch him for the one that doesn’t.
Learn from your successes more than you learn from your failures.
I strongly believe that the reason more people are failing in our world than are successful is because more people are learning from their failures—the wrong teacher—than are learning from their success.
I know that you read books about successful people. But let me tell you this…
Draw closer so you can hear me well.
Your own success story has a greater motivation and impact index than the success story of other people.
If you have done it before, you can do it again. But that you read about or saw someone who did it doesn’t mean you can or will do it yourself.
You see? Learn from your success.
Finally, what about this gibberish of success getting into the head and causing stagnation?
First of all, don’t blame success for the failure of someone who stopped dreaming and stopped working on his dreams just because he had success in the past.
Blame the man who stopped doing what he did to succeed. Blame the man who stopped learning from his success. And started learning from failure. 😞
So long as many are still succeeding in the same field, success is not to blame—but the man who chose to slack.
Hope you learnt something valuable today? Hit the comments section. What were your highlights? Do you have anything to add or subtract? Let’s interact in the comments.
Cheers…
The ultimate man is a student of success.
Chika Emmanuel Okoye
(The Custodian)
