People think failure is the opposite of success. No, my brother, my sister failure is the school fees you must pay for success. You can’t graduate without it.
I have learnt that you will never succeed before you fail. And oh, have I failed!
- A classmate once told me, “Jerry, please avoid public speaking, you speak Shonglish.” Look at me today I now charge in Shonglish!
- I’ve been told, “What you post sucks.” Well, those “sucky posts” built a Facebook page with 200,000 followers.
- A client once told me, “We can never do business with you.” Today, I have clients I didn’t even know existed.
- Another client told me, “With all you write, I never expected your people to deliver bad service like this.” And I said, “Thank you Ma’am, please tell me what went wrong, because every day is a chance to learn.”
Some people see me like a rock star. Others see me like a disaster. Both are correct.
When I opened my Facebook business page, I was told, “Don’t post business stuff, people won’t like it. Post jokes instead.” Well, here we are 200,000 people following me for “boring business stuff.”
I’ve gone into sales meetings, failed terribly, and even asked myself, “Are you really a sales trainer, Jerry?”
But I discovered something: success is cooked in a messy kitchen. Sometimes it’s over-salted, sometimes it burns, sometimes it’s half-cooked but keep stirring the pot, it will eventually taste right.
Let me tell you this: failure must be taught in school.
One day my daughter came to me and said, “Daddy, I failed Mathematics.”
I told her, “Congratulations! That’s normal. You will try again next month. Failure is a sign you are in the game.”
Life is not a straight highway. Sometimes you hit potholes, sometimes you take detours, sometimes the fuel runs out. But as long as you keep driving, you will get there.
- You borrow money and fail to pay back? It happens learn and rise again.
- Your marriage fails? Don’t die in shame try again.
- Your business fails? Close it, rest, and start again.
Even Thomas Edison was called a failure after 10,000 attempts at making a bulb. Today, we use light because he kept failing forward.
So here is my vow:
I will fail 1,000 times.
I will rise 1,001 times.
The more I fail, the more I smell success.
My brother, my sister don’t be afraid to fail. They will insult you, laugh at you, even beat you. But don’t stop. Because every failure is just success in disguise, still wearing work clothes.
By The Chartered Vendor
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