Refined by Failure Part 1
What’s the main difference between people who achieve and people who are average????
What makes people excel?
Why does some people sky rocket while others plummet?
Some people can’t be told anything and that is why they are still living their past failures…
We need to check our ego against the success of our faith, family, finances and physical health…
You know what I mean, some people tend to excel and achieve great things in spite of great difficulties.
Some call it the Midas Touch, Luck, or blessing…
• They finish in the top 5% in nationwide sales for their company even thought they lost really important accounts…
• They find ingenious ways to increase profits for their department in the face of budget cuts.
• They discover awesome business opportunities while other people and colleagues don’t see anything at all.
Now certainly we would all like to think of ourselves as above average, but achievers seem to leave the “average” in the dust- matter of fact, so far behind them that ordinary seems a distant second.
What makes the difference?
1. Is it family background?
Have a good family growing up is something to be grateful for, but it is not a reliable indicator of achievement. Matter of fact, a high percentage of successful people come from broken and troubled homes.
2. Wealth?
No, some of the greatest achievers come from households of average to below average means. Wealth is no indicator of high achievement, and poverty is no guarantee of low achievement.
3. Opportunity?
You know, opportunity is a peculiar thing. Two people with similar gifts, talents, and resources can look at a situation and one person will see a tremendous opportunity, while the other one sees nothing. Opportunity is in the eye of the beholder.
4. High morals?
I wish that we the key, but it’s not. I’ve known people with high integrity who achieve little. And I’ve known scoundrels who are high producers. Haven you?
5. Education?
Maybe it is one’s education that makes the difference between those who are average and those who achieve.
So what about what you earned or will learn in school? Will that make the difference between an achiever and a failure?
We don’t use 85% of what they teach us in college…
Soccer player Kyle Rote Jr remarked, “There is no doubt in my mind that there are many ways to be a winner, but there is really only one way to be a loser and that is to fail and not look beyond failure.”
Here are some typical responses that we as humans have towards failure…
I feared failure. Biology class
I misunderstood failure. What is failure, as a child, I thought it was a percentage.
69% and lower meant failure. 70% and above signified success.
I was unprepared for failure. Failure to me meant that others wouldn’t accept me… it meant that if I failed, who would want to listen to me preach and follow what I said from the pulpit or otherwise.
“We think that people won’t accept us if we fail, but even when you are a success people won’t accept us.”
We all deal with failure, we all will experience failure in our lives,
Just as
• Adam and Eve did in the garden
• Moses for striking the rock without permission
• Aaron failed as his two sons were killed for offering strange incense to the Lord as they were drunk
• David with Basheba
• Job was considered a failure for losing everything
• Jonah, for running from the Lord
• The wise man that built his house upon the sand
• Peter’s denial of Jesus three times
2 Corinthians 5:16-17 (New International Version)
16So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. 17Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!
Romans 8:1
There is therefore now no condemnation (GUILT) to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
Here is the biggest problem in dealing with failure…
Many people are training for success when they should be training on how to be refined by failure.
Failure is far more common than success; poverty is more prevalent than wealth; and disappointment more normal than achieving your goals.
#1 new years resolution the last three years is how to get out of debt!
We need training on how to recover from failure! That is a great concept!
Parachuting in the military…they practice landing, because if you didn’t you’d never get up again.
One motivational speaker stated very clearly:
“If the possibility of failure was erased, what would you achieve?”
If there was no risk, then there was really nothing to gain!
What’s the main difference between people who achieve and people who are average????
Two great differences between those that fail backwards and those that fail forward.
Failing Backwards Failing Forwards
Blaming others Taking Responsibility
Repeating the same mistakes Learning from each mistake(laws of success, laws of physical health, laws of peace)
Expecting Never to fail again Knowing failure is a part of progress
Expecting to continually fail Maintaining a positive attitude
Accepting Tradition Blindly Challenging such Assumptions
Limited by Past Mistakes Taking new risks
Thinking I am a failure Believing something didn’t work
Quitting Persevering
“The difference between greatness and mediocrity is how an individual views a failure.”
Professional Baseball Players
If they strike out 7 out of 10 times they are considered great!
One of the greatest problems people have with failure is that they are too quick to judge isolated situations in their lives and label them as failures. Instead, they need to keep the bigger picture in mind.
So we must change our perspective of failure!
Misperceptions about failure:
1. People think failure is avoidable – it’s not!
Here are some recent rules for being Human.
• You will learn lessons
• There are no mistakes – only lessons
• A lesson is repeated until it is learned
• If you don’t learn the easy lessons, they will get harder
• You’ll know you’ve learned a lesson when you actions change
2. People think failure is an event – It’s not! It’s a process.
The four corners of the box…
• She wants to divorce me?
• I got an F?
• I got fired?
• She’s pregnant, wonder what caused that?
3. People think failure is determined by other people - it’s not
You are the only person that can really label what you did a failure…no one else. Because until we do, we can’t be refined.
Did you know that entrepreneurs almost never get their first business off the ground, nor their second or third…
The average for entrepreneurs is 3.8 failures before they finally make it in business. They’re not deterred by errors, mistakes, or problems. Why? Because they don’t see setbacks as failures.
They recognize that three steps forward and two steps backwards still equal one step forward!
4. People think failure is their Enemy – it’s not!
NBA coach Rick Pitino states it even more stongly.
“Failure is a good thing,” he says, “It’s the fertilizer. Everything I’ve learned about coaching, I’ve learned from making mistakes.”
Herbert V. Brocknow believes, “The fellow who never makes a mistake takes his orders from one’s who do.”
Another person stated, “When we give ourselves permission to fail, then we give ourselves permission to excel!”
5. People think failure is irreversible – It’s not!
There’s a saying in Texas, “It doesn’t matter how much milk you spill, just as long as you don’t lose you cow!”
You see, spilled milk is not the bigger picture. People who correctly see failure, take failure in stride.
“Mistakes don’t make them want to give up.”
“Success doesn’t make them think that they are above others.”
6. People think failure is final – It’s not.
“Like” instead of Coke…Sergio Zyman
Errors become mistakes when we perceive them and respond to them incorrectly.
Mistakes become failures when we continually respond to them incorrectly.
Each of us has to make a choice. Are we going to sleep life away, avoiding failure at all costs? Or are we going to wake up and realize this: Failure is simply a price to pay to achieve success.
