Most parents experience the joy of watching their children turn over, then crawl, then stand up and then take those first steps. With outstretched arms they stand two or three steps away and encourage the little one to come to them. Chances are about three trillion to one that when the baby falls down the parent is not going to say, “Okay, you had your chance – you blew it!
So don’t you ever try to walk again!” That’s absurd, but isn’t it equally absurd to think we can accomplish major things in our lives without experiencing some reversals of some kind? We all need to remember that failure is an event, not a person, that success is a process and not just an instant happening. Few succeed overnight. Instead, they succeed over time.
Troy Aikman, Steve Young, Brett Favre, Dan Marino are (or were) extremely effective NFL quarterbacks and yet each of the four has thrown more incomplete passes than 99% of all the quarterbacks who ever threw a football.
Obviously, along the way they also threw an awful lot of completions. The top salesperson in the organization probably missed more sales than 90% of the sales people on the team, but he or she also made more calls than the others made. There’s never been a doctor who served many patients who, despite his or her best efforts, did not lose some of them to death. But they understood that was part of life itself.
All of us need to remember there is a vast difference between failing in an event and failing in life. Once we understand that, our chances for success substantially increase. We need to remember that winners are people who got up one more time than they were knocked down. Think about it, keep getting up and I’ll SEE YOU AT THE TOP!
… Adapted from Zig’s delightful book, Something Else To Smile About.
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Zig Ziglar was a teacher and motivator. His work continues to inspire people all over the world to pursue success and go for their dreams. Learn more about him at www.ziglar.com
* Zig is the author of Secrets of Closing the Sale