Great Failures

Be thankful for the defeat that many call failure, because if you can survive it and keep on trying, it gives you a chance to prove your ability to rise to the heights of achievement in your chosen field of endeavor.

No one has the right to brand you as a failure except yourself 1£ in a moment of despair, you should feel inclined to brand yourself as a failure, just remember those words of the wealthy philosopher Croesus, adviser to Cyrus, king of the Persians:

"I am reminded, O king, and take this lesson to heart, that there is a wheel on which the affairs of men revolve and its mechanism is such that it prevents any man from being always fortunate:''

Who of us has not seen "off" days, when everything seemed to go wrong? These are the days when we see only the flat side of the great wheel of life. Let us remember that the wheel is always turning. If it brings us sorrow today, it will bring us joy tomorrow. Life is a cycle of varying events-fortunes and misfortunes.

We cannot stop this wheel of fate from turning, but we can modify the misfortune it brings by remembering that good fortune will follow, just as surely as night follows day, if we maintain faith in ourselves and earnestly and honestly do our best. 

If you are hurting from the effects of some temporary defeat that you find hard to forget, let me recommend the poem "Opportunity" by Walter Malone: 

They do me wrong who say I come no more When once I knock and fail to find you in; For every day I stand outside your door, And bid you wake, and rise to fight and win. 

Wail not for precious chances passed away; Weep not for golden ages on the wane; Each night I burn the records of the day; At sunrise every soul is born again.  

Laugh like a boy at splendors that have sped, To vanished joys be blind and deaf and dumb; My judgments seal the dead past with its dead, But never bind a moment yet to come. 

Though deep in mire wring not your hands and weep, 1 lend my arm to all who say ((I can!" No shamefaced outcast ever sank so deep But yet might rise and be again a man! 

Dost thou behold thy lost youth all aghast? Dost reel from righteous retribution's blow? Then turn from blotted archives of the past And find the future's pages white as snow. 

Art thou a mourner? Rouse thee from thy spell; Art thou a sinner? Sin may be forgiven; Each morning gives thee wings to flee from hell, Each night a star to guide thy feet to heaven.  

THE MAJORITY OF PEOPLE MEET WITH FAILURE BECAUSE OF THEIR LACK OF PERSISTENCE IN CREATING NEW PLANS TO TAKE THE PLACE OF THOSE WHICH FAIL. 

-Napoleon Hill 

The heaviest and most cruel of all the crosses is poverty. 

Hundreds of millions of people living on this earth today find it necessary to struggle under the burden of this cross in order to enjoy the three bare necessities of life: a place to sleep, something to eat, and clothes to wear. 

Carrying the cross of poverty is no joke, but it seems significant that some of the greatest and most successful men and women who ever lived found it necessary to carry this cross before they"arrived."

Failure is generally accepted as a curse. But few people ever understand that failure is a curse only when it is accepted as such, and few ever learn the truth that failure is seldom permanent.

Failure teaches people lessons that they would never learn without it. Among the great lessons taught by failure is that of humility. 

No one may become great without feeling them self humble and insignificant when compared with the world around them, the stars above them, and the harmony with which Nature does her work. 

Most people who believe themselves to be failures are not failures at all. Most conditions that people look upon as failure are nothing more than temporary defeat.  

Do not use the word failure carelessly. 

Remember, carrying a burdensome cross temporarily is not failure. If you have the real seed of success within you, a little adversity and temporary defeat will only serve to nurture that seed and cause it to burst forth into maturity.

When Divine Intelligence wants a great man or woman to render some needed service in the world, the fortunate one is tested through some form of failure. If you are undergoing what you believe to be failure, have patience; you may be passing through your testing time.

No capable executive would ever select as their lieutenants those whom they had not tested for reliability, loyalty, perseverance, and other essential qualities. Responsibility, and all that goes with it in the way of remuneration, always gravitates to the person who will not accept temporary defeat as permanent failure.

Failure often places one in a position where unusual effort must be forthcoming. Many have wrung victory from defeat, fighting with their back to the wall, where they could not retreat.

I DON'T MEASURE A MAN'S SUCCESS BY HOW HIGH HE CLIMBS BUT HOW HIGH HE BOUNCES WHEN HE HITS BOTTOM. 

-George S. Patton  

Caesar had long wished to conquer the British. He quietly sailed his soldier-laden ships to the British island, unloaded his troops and supplies, then gave the order to burn all the ships. Calling his soldiers about him, he said, "Now it is win or perish. We have no choice:' And they won. People will usually win when they make up their minds to do so.

Burn your bridges behind you and observe how well you work when you know that you have no retreat. 

A streetcar conductor got a leave of absence while he tried out a position in a great commercial business. "If I do not succeed in holding my new position;' he remarked to a friend, "I can always come back to the old job:' At the end of the month he was back, completely cured of all ambition to do anything except work on a streetcar. Had he resigned instead of asking for a leave of absence he might have made good in the new job. 

Observe that everyone who travels the road of life carries a cross. Remember, as you take inventory of your own burdens, that Nature's richest gifts will go to those who meet failure without flinching or whining. 

Nature's ways are not easily understood. If they were, no one could be tested for great responsibility-through failure. 

I HAVE NOT FAILED. I'VE JUST FOUND 10,000 WAYS THAT WON'T WORK. 

-Thomas Edison 

ULTIMATELY, NOTHING MUCH MATTERS VERY MUCH. THE DEFEAT THAT SEEMS TO BREAK YOUR HEART TODAY WILL BE BUT A RIPPLE AMONG THE WAVES OF OTHER EXPERIENCES IN THE OCEAN OF YOUR LIFE FURTHER AHEAD. 

-Napoleon Hill 

There is no failure. What appears to be failure is usually nothing but temporary defeat. Make sure that you do not accept it as permanent!