The difference between failure and success is the decision to sink or swim. Do you give up and drown in your failure, or do you embrace the strong waves and swim toward shore with the will and determination to survive?
Failure can be immobilising, but this paralysis isn’t productive. To fail successfully, you need to have the courage to embrace the failure and learn from it. It’s all about perspective. This is why the most successful business people in life are where they are today. Experts in business are experts in failure. They possess the unique perspective that the majority of people unfortunately live without; the wisdom to perceive failure as a scenic detour toward success, not a fault in the track that causes you to derail.
Sometimes business isn’t doing so well, and it’s easy to think of yourself as being a failure. But before you feel too down, read these top 10 motivational quotes on failure from the world’s most inspiring business leaders and famous business experts.
Learn from failure. If you are an entrepreneur and your first venture wasn’t a success, welcome to the club!
– Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Group
My mother used to tell me, ‘failure is not the opposite of success, it’s a stepping stone to success’. So at some point, I learned not to dread failure. I strongly believe that we are not put on this Earth just to accumulate trophies and avoid failures; but rather to be whittled and sandpapered down until what’s left is who we truly are.
– Arianna Huffington, co-founder of The Huffington Post
It is fine to celebrate success, but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure.
– Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft
Failure is just a resting place. It is an opportunity to begin again more intelligently.
– Henry Ford, founder of Ford Motor Company
Winners are not afraid of losing. But losers are. Failure is part of the process of success. People who avoid failure also avoid success.
– Robert T. Kiyosaki, founder of the Rich Dad Company and Cashflow Technologies
For every failure, there’s an alternative course of action. You just have to find it. When you come to a road block, take a detour.
– Mary Kay Ash, founder of Mary Kay Cosmetics
Like success, failure is many things to many people. With positive mental attitude, failure is a learning experience, a rung on the ladder, and a plateau at which to get your thoughts in order to prepare to try again.
– W. Clement Stone, founder of Combined Insurance Company of America
Failure is success if we learn from it.
– Malcolm Forbes, publisher of Forbes Magazine
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’ll find success.
– Thomas J. Watson, Chairman and CEO of IBM between 1914 – 1956
Failures are like skinned knees, painful but superficial.
– Henry Ross Perot, founder of Electronic Data Systems and Perot Systems