Confidence breeds success

"Work with the confidence that comes with experience... even if you lack both."

Failure is a stepping stone to success

Failure... it's inevitable.  It's going to happen... and when it does, it will be hard to see past it.  We've all had times in our life where we've failed at something.  Something we've cared about... were passionate about.  In that moment of failure, our first instinct is to put up walls.  We start saying things like, "Well I'm never going to trust them again." or "I will never try that again."  If we're not careful and live in that place to long, we inevitably become cynical.  We say stuff like "Why should I bother trying to do such-and-such, I'm just going to screw it up." 

I chose to write about this today because it's something that I currently face.  I have failed to provide results that a client of ours required.  While I won't go into the details about the fallout, I can assure you it wasn't good.  So I find myself in the spot I described in the beginning.  Dangerously looming between the cliff of despair, if I'm not being overdramatic.  But if I'm being honest to myself, that is how I feel.  So what can I do to turn a loss into a win???

There is no magic formula.  There is only time.  I remember back when I was in high school, my friends and I use to play chess every day during our designated Activity Period.  During that time we would always play each other, never anyone outside of our circle.  One day our 'coach' decided to start a tournament and assign point values.  Everyone was to participate and had a point value.  We started off playing each other and quickly rose the rankings.  It was fun.  Then he threw in a curve ball.  You had to accept a challenge or you automatically lost.  Uh oh.  Now we had to play other players outside of our group.  You can probably guess what happened.  We got destroyed.  I at one time was on the top of the board, only to now watch my rankings plummet in huge chunks.  I was devastated.  It took a while to lick my wounds and heal from that, but over time I learned from my mistakes.  I learned new techniques and styles I would never have learned had a stayed in my circle.  By stepping out { really I was pushed out }, I was able to become a far better chess player.  By the end of my Senior year, I was the best chess player in our school.

The point of this is to not give up.  I'm writing this today to tell myself that.  I've learned first hand that failure is truly a stepping stone to success.  It may not happen over night, but with a positive attitude and time, it's a guarantee you'll be in a better place.