The Truth About Failure

Art Williams, the former owner of AL Williams and Primerica, writes about failure in his book All You Can Do is All You Can Do. Here is an excerpt:

So many people have such a fear of failure that they never do anything. that keeps them from experiencing failure, but it sure does limit their success, too. If you have a goal of doing great things, you're bound to have failures somewhere along that path.

I've been in this business a long time, and I still mess up every week. It used to be every day, but I got better! Everybody loses every now and then. Look at the Super Bowl. Those are two best teams in the nation. But one of them has to lose. No matter what your level in business, sometimes you're going to have a setback.

The important thing to remember is that failure is only the end if you let it be. If one failure causes you to give up, you have really lost. Bob Miller, a great friend of mine in the business, has a saying that I love. I guess I'd call it an unwritten law.

"Failure is the halfway mark on the road to success."

It's a good thought. Failure is just one stage you'll go through on your way to the top. Everybody who's ever been a winner has experienced it at one time or another. In his book, The Renewal Factor, Robert Waterman refers to failure as a "mind-set" rather than an absolute, and he refers to a study showing that great leaders never used the word failure. instead, they used words like mistake and glitch. They simply never viewed themselves as having failed. We could all take a lesson from that. Failure is never the end of the road...unless we give up.

** Get All You Can Is All You Can Do by Art Williams
** Check out the AL Williams Story in the book Coach