Lesson #1: Failure Is Your Friend On the Road To Success
Lesson #1: Failure Is Your Friend On the Road To Success
Rather, Watson believed that failure was not only an inevitable part of the equation in the formula for success, but that it was both a necessary and also a positive stepping stone towards achieving the goals he had set out for himself.
“I have made a good many predictions about the future of our business and I have been wrong every time because I have always underestimated its possibilities,” said Watson. Despite heading one of the most powerful companies in the country of his time, Watson was not perfect. He, too, made mistakes along the way – mistakes that would cost the company dearly. But, what set Watson apart from his peers was his determination to bounce back from his failures.
In his early years, Watson was struggling as a salesman with Wheeler and Wilcox in Buffalo. He had just relocated to a new city and was finding it difficult to adjust not only to the change of environment but also to having to now sell products door-to-door. After making a particularly hard sale, Watson celebrated his success with a drink at the local pub. But, when his equipment and horse and buggy were all stolen outside the bar, his success would be transformed into a failure in the eyes of the company. He was promptly fired. Disillusioned with his prospects, it took Watson over a year to find another steady job. Was having that one drink a mistake? Perhaps, but it was never one that Watson would regret since it would start him on the path towards running his own company.
Watson was never content to take the easy road. He set his sights high and tried his best. He made some mistakes, suffered the consequences, and bounced right back. “It is better to aim at perfection and miss it than to aim at imperfection and hit it,” he said. Watson was not about to let fear of failure get in his way of achieving the impossible. For him, the impossible was not only possible, but it was indeed the only thing that was worth striving for; it was the only thing that would differentiate him and make him stand out.
Mistakes, according to Watson, were nothing to be ashamed of and were, in fact, a necessary part of the process of running a business. Both failures and successes were something to be celebrated, because both signaled effort and triumph in the end. “The man who does not take pride in his own performance performs nothing in which to take pride,” said Watson.
Therefore, the choice for Watson was a simple one. “You can be discouraged by failure or you can learn from it,” he said. “So go ahead and make mistakes. Make all you can. Because, remember that's where you'll find success. On the far side."
Lesson 1 Failure Is Your Friend On the Road To Success
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Watson thought about his success in plain terms. When he was once asked what the secret to all he had achieved in his life was, Watson replied, “It’s quite simple, really. Double your rate of failure. You’re thinking of failure as the enemy of success. But it isn’t at all.”
Rather, Watson believed that failure was not only an inevitable part of the equation in the formula for success, but that it was both a necessary and also a positive stepping stone towards achieving the goals he had set out for himself.
“I have made a good many predictions about the future of our business and I have been wrong every time because I have always underestimated its possibilities,” said Watson. Despite heading one of the most powerful companies in the country of his time, Watson was not perfect. He, too, made mistakes along the way – mistakes that would cost the company dearly. But, what set Watson apart from his peers was his determination to bounce back from his failures.
In his early years, Watson was struggling as a salesman with Wheeler and Wilcox in Buffalo. He had just relocated to a new city and was finding it difficult to adjust not only to the change of environment but also to having to now sell products door-to-door. After making a particularly hard sale, Watson celebrated his success with a drink at the local pub. But, when his equipment and horse and buggy were all stolen outside the bar, his success would be transformed into a failure in the eyes of the company. He was promptly fired. Disillusioned with his prospects, it took Watson over a year to find another steady job. Was having that one drink a mistake? Perhaps, but it was never one that Watson would regret since it would start him on the path towards running his own company.
Watson was never content to take the easy road. He set his sights high and tried his best. He made some mistakes, suffered the consequences, and bounced right back. “It is better to aim at perfection and miss it than to aim at imperfection and hit it,” he said. Watson was not about to let fear of failure get in his way of achieving the impossible. For him, the impossible was not only possible, but it was indeed the only thing that was worth striving for; it was the only thing that would differentiate him and make him stand out.
Mistakes, according to Watson, were nothing to be ashamed of and were, in fact, a necessary part of the process of running a business. Both failures and successes were something to be celebrated, because both signaled effort and triumph in the end. “The man who does not take pride in his own performance performs nothing in which to take pride,” said Watson.
Therefore, the choice for Watson was a simple one. “You can be discouraged by failure or you can learn from it,” he said. “So go ahead and make mistakes. Make all you can. Because, remember that's where you'll find success. On the far side."
Lesson 1 Failure Is Your Friend On the Road To Success
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Dianne CramptonDianne Crampton is an executive leadership coach, team culture consultant, author and president of TIGERS Success Series, Inc. Dianne has been helping CEO's and Executives connect their employees to their core values and goals for over 20 years using the trademarked TIGERS team culture process, which stands for trust, interdependence, genuineness, empathy, risk and success. To download a free white paper on behaviors that build strong teams and behaviors that will predictably tear them down go here. Dianne's contribution to the 2010 Pfeiffer Consulting Journal (an imprint of John Wiley and Sons Publishers) entitled TIGERS Hearted Teams is available in November 2009. Her new book TIGERS Among Us: 5 Winning Business Team Cultures And Why, Three Creeks Publishing will release in March 2010. To receive publishing discounts, subscribe to the free TigerTracks Newsletter here. - Visit Dianne Crampton's Website |
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Leanne Hoagland-SmithAre your sales where you want them to be? Will you be one of the few who achieves sales or business success or one of the many who have failed to change? Are you tired of being told you are like everyone else? Then you may find my first book on sales of interest. Be the Red Jacket in the Sea of Gray Suits, The Keys to Unlocking Sales available at Amazon or at http://www.processspecialist.com/red-jacket.htm. This book is a reflection of my no-nonsense approach to improving sales to overall business results. If you are truly committed to making sustainable changes, then I can help you secure a positive return on your investment because I focus on executable solutions not telling you the problems you already know you have. From training to corporate (group) coaching to executive one on one coaching, my approach is to assess, create awareness, build a goal driven action plan and then execute. The bottom line question is "Not do you or your employees know it, but do you or they want to do it?" Please call for a free strategy session at 219.759.5601. - Visit Leanne Hoagland-Smith's Website |
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Linda RichardsonLinda Richardson is the Founder and Executive Chairwoman of Richardson, a global sales training and performance improvement company. As a recognized leader in the industry, she has won the coveted Stevie Award for Lifetime Achievement in Sales Excellence and she was identified by Training Industry, Inc. as one of the “Top 20 Most Influential Training Professionals.” Ms. Richardson is credited with the movement to Consultative Selling and is the author of ten books on selling and sales management, including Sales Coaching — Making the Great Leap from Sales Manager to Sales Coach, and Stop Telling, Start Selling. She teaches sales and management at the Wharton Graduate School of the University of Pennsylvania and the Wharton Executive Development Center. Linda is a frequent speaker at industry and client conferences, has been published extensively in industry and training journals, and has been featured in numerous publications, including The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Nation’s Business, Selling Power, Success, and The Conference Board Magazine. Learn more about Richardson's sales training and performance improvement solutions at http://www.richardson.com web - Visit Linda Richardson's Website |
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