Recently an article was forwarded to me that was written by a semi well known public speaker gurus about failure. In the article he strongly discounted the tried and true “sayings” that most of us have heard such as:

“Learn from your mistakes”

“Never make the same mistake twice”

“You only fail when you quit”

"Failure is an event not a person"

The author says that failure is an event and a person.

He pushes that "failure can be avioded" and that that “It’s stupidity or mediocrity that stops you” from succeeding.

He lists 18 reasons why people fail. He says people fail because they. . .

1. are self defeatists
2. have a lack of belief
3. have a limited self image
4. are lazy
5. are not prepared
6. don’t do their homework
7. procrastinate
8. have poor timing
9. say the wrong things
10. show greed
11. are insincere
12. are not perceived as trustworthy
13. don’t work their butt off
14. don’t follow their plan
15. try to do everything themselves
16. make excuses
17. don’t do their best
18. don’t love what they do

Not to argue with somone in the national spotlight but I believe that all of these “reasons” can be overcome through trial and error or what I call “perseverance through failure”.

Persevering through failure. . .

1. produces success which proves to us that we can succeed
2. builds our belief
3. improves and expands our self image
4. proves we are not lazy
5. makes us more prepared
6. forces us to do our homework
7. is the opposite of procrastination
8. improves our timing
9. helps us correct the way we speak and what we say
10. keeps our greed in check
11. increases our sincerity
12. makes us more trustworthy
13. is hard work
14. is the roadmap to success
15. causes others to share your vision and to want to help you accomplish it
16. eliminates the need for excuses
17. forces us to be better and do our “new best”
18. causes us to love what we do or leads us to something else 

If we were all automatically able to do everything perfectly from the start there would be no value in what we do. Everyone would be as good at everything as we were and, likewise, we would be as good as everyone else at what they do.

Those who try, fail, and quit a particular business or sport (insert any business/sport/etc) make those who try the same business or sport and subsequently fail, not quit, try again, and succeed, worth their salt.

Failure is the foundational cornerstone for success - other people's failure as well as your own.

Failure is the mother of competition. There can’t be a winner if there are no losers.

Failure makes people try harder, be better, become more, look for new solutions and ways of doing things, and be more efficient.

Failure is not optional but quitting is.

Quitting is the decision to give up, not trying again, not becoming better at what you are trying to do, or trying to do it a different/better way.

Success is where opportunity and preparedness meet.

Persevering through failure prepares us for opportunities and increases our ability to see the opportunities that are all around us.

The biggest mistake we can make in life is to think we “are” failures just because we fail at something.

The second biggest mistake that we can make is to think failure should be avoided.

If we aren't willing to fail how will we ever discover what we like to do, what we are good at, or what our purpose/calling in life is?

The third biggest mistake we can make is to take advice from people that are misguided.

There are three types of people in the world. People that can help you, people that can hurt you, and people that don't make any difference.

-Pete Shrader