Hi and Welcome to the A & J PEI Treasures E Jean Simpson Author Blog Post and Podcast. I’m your host, Jean coming to you from the beautiful Province of Prince Edward Island, Canada!! The blog post and podcast is an opinion piece and only reflects this author’s opinion and not that of any other entity. Today’s blog post and podcast I focus on factors that determine success and what success is. I also explore failure and its link to success and the place of attitude in this. All 3 are linked in ways one cannot imagine. If you want to find out more, then stay tuned…!
According to Lou Holtz, “Ability is what you’re capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it.” This is a factor for success. But then we are left wondering what success is. This term seems to have no real answer. This is because everyone sees success differently. So, it is something that you’ll have to define for yourself. For some it is simply getting a task they want to do finished. For others, it is a business term that means that they have a company that is doing well financially. For others, it is exposure in their chosen art. For some, it is doing a job and doing it well. There are many different forms of success. Success is often taken as the opposite to failure. This definition is problematic. As William Arruda points out in a Forbes article, “Failure is not a step backward; it’s an excellent stepping stone to success.” https://www.forbes.com/sites/williamarruda/2015/05/14/why-failure-is-essential-to-success/?sh=49d78cbf7923. What happens when one makes failure the opposite to success? We find ourselves fighting against admitting a failure. Doing this only keeps the wounds fresh and we do not find a way to move forward. We do not find where the changes need to be made nor do we learn the lesson that can come from it. You don’t even learn that there is one way that doesn’t work. To move forward, one must always deal with failures to find out what went wrong. So, failure actually can be part of finding success. Unless you take the Thomas A. Edison attitude of “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” You may find yourself stuck.
The ideas of success and failure being inextricably linked is quite fascinating. It gives us a chance to become a phoenix that rises from the ashes rather than the catastrophic end of the Great Fire of London. Though even London rebuilt and this time more intelligently so I guess this is a good example of learning from failure. It gives a chance to hope for better, to move forward but this time more intelligently. It gives us a chance to make success out of failure. It gives us a chance. Which brings us to the importance of attitude to both success and failure. If one feels that they have failed, how hard will it be to get back up and keep trying? It is important to find a way to explore what went wrong and to see where you can begin again more intelligently. A way to chalk it up to learning and learn a different way to be. If one refuses to learn a lesson from failures, then one will stay where they are and not move forward. It is forward movement that defines those who have been successful. They don’t give up after the first failed attempt. They explored what went wrong and then they decided what they need to do to move forward, this time more ready and capable of meeting the challenges than they were before.
As Thomas Fuller said, “All things are difficult before they are easy.” This seems true of any and all learning. It is also true of life in general. Almost no one gets out of bed one morning and decides to be a symphonic artist. It takes years of learning and practice. No one becomes an artist or writer overnight. It starts out slowly. Even my writing did not start out overnight. I had some experience writing as a kid. Nothing published, but I had experience. Then in University, I had years of writing papers. There were not the opportunities that there are now. My first works were hand written. We didn’t have computers. I had to research in card catalogues in a library. Was that time wasted? I don’t think so, I learned that you can use different search terms, and there are tons of choices. I learned to write longer papers. I learned about research. I learned that you can find social constructs in all literature then you can find out a lot about things by reading. Whether you read or you use a reading app or audio books, the information is available.
So, when one considers it, altitude is determined by attitude. If you think only of a setback as a failure, you will feel defeated. Some people continue to feel defeated. This is where you get problems. You lash out, you hurt people. You hate yourself. Things seem dark. If you realize that a setback is just that, a setback. If you determine where things went wrong and focus on how you would do things if you could, then you have a goal and a backup plan. Then it is not a catastrophe, but a chance to continue on, to change direction. It’s a chance to let the wind fill your sails so that you can move forward in a better and more thorough way.
As Harry Golden said, “The only thing that overcomes hard luck is hard work.” It is nearly impossible for success to happen without a lot of hard work. It is the rare person who experiences success throughout life without having to put in a lot of hard work. Sure, it does happen, but as they say, easy come, easy go. Often easy success ends up being something that is fleeting. It does not last. In the immortal words of Thomas A. Edison, “Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.” Edison may have had his failings, but giving up was not among them. According to Wang: https://insight.kellogg.northwestern.edu/article/some-people-succeed-after-failing-others-flounder in which Wang suggests that: “the lesson is clear: people should place a high premium on feedback, as well as on lessons they learn through failure.”
So, as Winston Churchill famously said “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” Failure and success is all in the eyes of the beholder. But, what you do with it is what makes the difference for you and for others in your life. It may also make the difference between becoming better and becoming bitter. I hope you’ll decide to make the choice that will lead you to happiness and success! Thanks for listening to my podcast and/or reading my blog post and thanks for your interest in A & J PEI Treasures!
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A & J PEI Treasures/E Jean Simpson, BEd, BA, MA 