As painful and discouraging as failure can be, it is an important part of the growth and learning process. Michael Jordan, one of the greatest basketball legends, offers some of his wisdom about falling short, and how to use it to move forward.
Learn from your own failures as well as those of others.
Everybody fails. Rather than cower from this fact and avoid even trying, face it and learn from it. See your failures – and other peoples’ – as opportunities for growth.
If somebody failed trying to accomplish what you are doing, find out why. There’s no need to make the same mistakes if you can learn by asking questions.
Mindset will make you win or lose before you even start.
“You have to expect things of yourself before you can do them.”
Get closer to success by reaching higher. Having high standards for yourself, keeping a positive mindset, and working hard to achieve your goals are all essential to accomplishing anything.
“Some people want it to happen, some wish it would happen, others make it happen.”
Be the type of person who makes things happen. Always work hard for what you want and keep your goal in mind. If you think derogatorily, with entitlement, or negatively, you’ll accomplish nothing and will only discourage others, including your own team, in their quest for success.
“I never looked at the consequences of missing a big shot… when you think about the consequences you always think of a negative result.”
It’s important to remember the goal of winning or achieving something. Focusing on the potential loss only pulls your attention away from the positivity required to move forward.
Selfishness in success equals loneliness in failure.
“If you think and achieve as a team, the individual accolades will take care of themselves. Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence win championships.”
Even if your slam dunk is the winning shot, the whole team wins, not just you. If you gloat, become arrogant, and don’t give credit to the people who taught you and achieved alongside you, they will not be supportive of you during your losses.
Failure is fuel for hard work.
“Failure makes me work even harder.”
Think of yourself as your greatest competition. Each day, you want to be better than the person you were yesterday. Sink more baskets, make more sales, and just improve. When you experience a failure, you’ve given yourself an opportunity to rise above it. If you only ever succeed, you have nothing to improve upon.
Fear of failure is only a distraction from success.
“I know fear is an obstacle for some people, but it’s an illusion to me.”
Trying and failing is better than not trying at all. Fear of failure makes many people afraid to even try, but the potential success they throw away is worth so much more than the failure could ever take away.
Learn from your failures and be better each day. Gain and grow from each failure, and watch yourself reach new heights. Be like Mike.
