37 Transformative Quotes On Failure To Consider For Your Success

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Excerpt: Failure isn’t losing—it’s learning. Those who live by this principle succeed more. Our 37 quotes on failure will transform your perspective.

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Introduction: Success looks at failure differently

Failure isn’t losing—it’s learning. Many of us have been so programmed to avoid failure, that we’re willing to sacrifice almost any potential gain to steer clear of it.

We’ve been taught that anything less than an “A” is unacceptable; not having a certain number of “likes” means we’re a loser; not fitting a certain mold means we’re an outsider. And so we conform, ease up on the challenges, and stay within our comfort zone.

But, it’s precisely when we avoid failure at all costs that we inevitably avoid success at all costs, all the same. Just like we already know that we have to embrace the suck when it comes to doing what we know is healthy for us, we need to learn how to embrace failure when it comes to doing what we know will be educational for us.

Failure should be sought not fought.

Sara Blackely, billionaire founder of Spanx, was actually encouraged to fail by her father when she was a child. She describes how, “At the dinner table, instead of asking about the best part of our day, he would ask us what we failed at that week. If we didn’t have something to tell him, he would be disappointed. When we shared whatever failure we’d endured, he’d high-five us and say, ‘Way to go!’” What a truly incredible gift to have been given.

A gift that would have allowed her to feel more comfortable with failure; to better embrace failure rather than villainize it; to more quickly engage in trial rather than hastily avoid error; to more openly stumble through mistakes with a dependable support-system rather than stress-system; and to more remarkably fail her way forward to success.

What does it take to be successful?

Success can be a tricky word to define, but let’s assume, in this context, that its having realized your full potential. If you reverse engineer your way back from an image of you as being the almighty bearer of realized potential—what would each step along the way look like?

In my mind, it looks like a path that was immersed in trial, packed with error, filled with insight, and challenging at every step along the way. Not challenging enough to lead to burnout or quitting, but challenging enough to shape the coal of your potential into the diamond of what you could be.

For what is the difference between those who are successful and those who are just beginning? The successful have failed more times than the beginners have even tried. Don’t let the fear of failure hold you back from realizing that ideal you—fail forward. Don’t fight away the idea of trial because you’re scared of error—embrace trial. And don’t imagine failure in worst case scenarios—image living a life where you never get to realize your ultimate success.

…And give failure a damn big hug and get back to work.

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The List: 37 Transformative Quotes On Failure To Consider For Your Success

“Failure is an event, never a person.”

William D. Brown | Read Matt’s Blog on this quote ➜

“Good judgment comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgment.”

Barry LePatner | Read Matt’s Blog on this quote ➜

“Failures are life’s way of nudging you and letting you know you are off course. Trying new things and not being afraid to fail along the way are more important than what you learn in school.”

Sara Blakely

“Do you remember, in school or early in your life, being afraid to try something because you feared you might fail at it? Most teenagers choose to fool around rather than exert themselves. Halfhearted, lazy effort gives them a ready-made excuse: ‘It doesn’t matter. I wasn’t even trying.’ As we get older, failure is not so inconsequential anymore. What’s at stake is not some arbitrary grade or intramural sports trophy, but the quality of your life and your ability to deal with the world around you.”

Ryan Holiday, The Daily Stoic (Page 25)

“Would you like me to give you a formula for success? It’s quite simple, really. Double your rate of failure. You are thinking of failure as the enemy of success. But it isn’t at all. You can be discouraged by failure or you can learn from it, So go ahead and make mistakes. Make all you can. Because remember that’s where you will find success.”

Thomas J. Watson

“Disappointment is inevitable when you are attempting to do anything of great scale.  Instead, let your disappointments drive you to find new answers; discipline your disappointments.  Learn from every failure, act on those learnings, and success becomes inevitable.”

Tony Robbins, Money: Master the Game | More quotes from this book ➜

“Faith is daring to put your dream to the test. It is better to try to do something and fail than to try to do nothing and succeed.”

Robert H. Schuller

“You can risk being wrong or you can be boring.”

Seth Godin, The Icarus Deception | More quotes from this book ➜

“He who hopes to avoid all failure and misfortune is trying to live in a fairyland; the wise man realistically accepts failures as a part of life and builds a philosophy to meet them and make the most of them.  He lives on the principle of ‘nothing attempted, nothing gained’ and is resolved that if he fails he is going to fail while trying to succeed.”

Wilfred Peterson, The Art of Living

“The difference between average people and achieving people is their perception of and response to failure.”

John C. Maxwell, Leadership Gold | More quotes from this book ➜

“There are two kinds of failure.  The first comes from never trying out your ideas because you are afraid, or because you are waiting for the perfect time.  This kind of failure you can never learn from, and such timidity will destroy you.  The second kind comes from a bold venturesome spirit.  If you fail in this way, the hit that you take to your reputation is greatly outweighed by what you learn.  Repeated failure will toughen your spirit and show you with absolute clarity how things must be done.  In fact, it is a curse to have everything go right on your first attempt.  You will fail to question the element of luck, making you think that you have the golden touch.  When you do inevitably fail, it will confuse and demoralize you past the point of learning. You have everything to gain.”

Robert Greene, Mastery

“Arrogant or critical people are often people with low self-esteem who are afraid of taking risks. That’s because, if you learn something new, you are then required to make mistakes in order to fully understand what you have learned.”

Robert Kiyosaki, Rich Dad Poor Dad (Page 207) | More quotes from this book ➜

“A man may make mistakes, but he isn’t a failure until he starts blaming someone else.”

John Wooden

“Failure is not having the courage to try, nothing more and nothing less.  The only thing standing between most people and their dreams is the fear of failure.  Yet failure is essential to success in any endeavor.  Failure tests us and allows us to grow.  It offers us lessons and guides us along the path of enlightenment.  The teachers of the East say that every arrow that hits the bull’s eye is the result of one hundred misses.  It is a fundamental Law of Nature to profit through loss.  Never fear failure.  Failure is your friend.”

Robin S. Sharma, The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari | More quotes from this book ➜

“Failure does not deserve to be addressed with recrimination or pity.  Rather, failure must be honored for the insight it provides.  Failure is the grist for learning; it is our teacher.”

Mark Divine, The Way of the Seal | More quotes from this book ➜

“Sometimes the best teacher is our most recent failure.”

The Minimalists, Everything That Remains | More quotes from this book ➜

“Whenever anything negative happens to you, there is a deep lesson concealed within it, although you may not see it at the time. Even a brief illness or an accident can show you what is real and unreal in your life, what ultimately matters and what doesn’t.”

Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now (Page 178) | More quotes from this book ➜

“Every event has a purpose and every setback its lesson.  I have realized that failure, whether of the personal, professional or even spiritual kind, is essential to personal expansion.  It brings inner growth and a whole host of psychic rewards.  Never regret your past.  Rather, embrace it as the teacher that it is.”

Robin S. Sharma, The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari | More quotes from this book ➜

“That is one of the problems: people have been taught never to do anything wrong, and then they become so hesitant, so fearful, so frightened of doing wrong, that they become stuck. They cannot move, something wrong may happen. So they become like rocks, they lose all movement. Commit as many mistakes as possible, remembering only one thing: don’t commit the same mistake again. And you will be growing.”

Osho, Courage (Page 12)| More quotes from this book ➜

“Improvement at anything is based on thousands of tiny failures, and the magnitude of your success is based on how many times you’ve failed at something.  If someone is better than you at something, then it’s likely because she has failed at it more than you have.  If someone is worse than you, it’s likely because he hasn’t been through all of the painful learning experiences you have.”

Mark Mason, The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck | More quotes from this book ➜

“If I fail more than you do, I win.  Built into this notion is the ability to keep playing.  If you get to keep playing, sooner or later you’re gonna make it succeed.  The people who lose are the ones who don’t fail at all, or the ones who fail so big they don’t get to play again.”

Seth Godin | Read Matt’s Blog on this quote ➜

“The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing.”

Henry Ford

“You learn nothing from your successes except to think too much of yourself. It is from failure that all growth comes, provided you can recognize it, admit it, learn from it, rise above it, and then try again.”

Dee Hock, Founder and Former CEO, Visa International

“Only a man who knows what it is like to be defeated can reach down to the bottom of his soul and come up with the extra ounce of power it takes to win when the match is even.”

Muhammad Ali

“Our progress is paved with mistakes, failures, and defeats, and it’s our resilience that keeps us keeping on.  Every misstep is a teacher, and not all the things and people we lose in life end up being losses.  Our obsession with winning can cost us much more than losing a healthy outlook when life doesn’t go our way.  There’s always a lesson, a nugget of wisdom or a jewel waiting when things look like they won’t be going in our favor; we just have to be willing to pay attention and do some digging if need be.  Once we remind ourselves to find opportunity in any situation, there is no loss, just learning.  Failure isn’t the opposite of success, it’s a path to it.”

Humble the Poet, Things No One Else Can Teach Us (Page 268) | More quotes from this book ➜

“The people who are good in the long run fail a lot, especially at the beginning. So, when you fail early, it might be worth realizing that this is part of the deal, the price you pay for being good in the long run.  Every rejection is a gift. A chance to learn and to do it better next time. An opportunity to figure out how to bounce, not break. Don’t waste them.”

Seth Godin, Blog

“If you live through defeat, you’re not defeated. If you are beaten but acquire wisdom, you have won. Lose yourself to improve yourself. Only when we shed all self-definition do we find who we really are.”

Unknown

“It’s okay to be sad when you mess up, but don’t dwell for too long. The mistake has already been made, and you can’t erase the fact that it happened. You can either learn from it or mope about it. The choice is yours, but remember, we are only human; we were born to make mistakes.  Simply put, if you have never made a mistake in your life, then that means that you have never taken a risk.  Taking risks means that you go outside of your comfort zone – that you go outside of your boundaries. The most successful people are the ones who are not afraid to give it their all and possibly humiliate themselves greatly in front of others.  It’s like that one saying, ‘The person who asks a question is a fool for five minutes, but the person who never asks and remains silent is a fool forever.’  You choose the way you want to live your life.”

Cynthia Amy Tang

“You will fail at some point in your life. Accept it. You will lose. You will embarrass yourself. You will suck at something. There is no doubt about it. … Never be discouraged. Never hold back. Give everything you’ve got. And when you fall throughout life — and maybe even tonight after a few too many glasses of champagne — fall forward.”

Denzel Washington

“Pain is not a punishment. And pleasure is not a reward. You could argue that failure is not punishment and… Success is not reward. They’re just failure and success. You can choose how you respond.”

Sarah Lewis, The Rise

“…We may encounter many defeats, but we must not be defeated. That sounds goody two-shoes, I know, but I believe that a diamond is the result of extreme pressure and time. Less time is crystal. Less than that is coal. Less than that is fossilized leaves. Less than that it’s just plain dirt. In all my work, in the movies I write, the lyrics the poetry, the prose, the essays, I am saying that we may encounter many defeats – maybe it’s imperative that we encounter the defeats – but we are much stronger than we appear to be and maybe much better than we allow ourselves to be.”

Maya Angelou

“Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much because they live in that gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat.”

Theodore Roosevelt

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