Failure is Necessary for Success

Without failure we could never know success.  Without fumbling and falling and getting back up to do it all over again, and again, and again, a baby could never learn to successfully walk.  Recently I “talked” to a 1 year old.  I didn’t understand a word he said.  He was failing as a great communicator!  However, one day, after repeated failure he will “learn” to talk successfully.  If you understand how the brain works, you will understand that this “failure to success” thing is normal.

When you learned to ride a bike, you wobbled and fell and got back up and tried again until you had a success.  The same was true when you learned how to drive a car or literally anything you can now do with ease, automatically, and successfully.   Failure is just part of the success process.  Actually, very successful people just fail more often and much faster than less successful people do.  Therefore, if you want to experience faster success, just fail faster!  It is awesome to be able to look at failure as part of success.  It’s the dark side of success.  Dark is necessary for there to be light just as failure is necessary for there to be success.

Look at Thomas Edison.  He “failed” over 10,000 times to create a workable filament for the incandescent light bulb.  Without those failures, there would not have been a success in his endeavor.  However, once he succeeded, just one time, he could mass produce that success and by doing so, he became rich.

Did you learn how to use the computer the first time someone showed you?  Probably not!  You had to be shown again and again and then you had to learn some things through trial and error.  That’s just the way the brain works! 

The same will happen to you in your network marketing business.  No matter what others tell you, you will have to learn some things on your own through failure.  You have to fail and succeed “your way.”  You could be taught how to ride a bike, but you still had to fail in order to ride that bike.  You could be taught how to drive a car, but you still had to experience some level of failure before you could successfully drive.  You can be taught how to build a successful network marketing business, but you still need to experience failure before you can reap the reward to success.  It’s awesome that we have mentors and teachers in this business, but they cannot succeed for you.  Eventually you have to do it yourself.  Their successes, however, will lessen the severity of your failures, for you can learn many things from them.

The reason that others cannot succeed “for you” is because you are you and they are they.  You are unique and have to experience success in your unique way based on your unique gifts and talents.  As a result, you have to experience some unique failures in order to accomplish unique successes.  Learning from others is great, but you still have to practice and in that practice you will fail.  Do not worry, however, for all failure will lead to success if your are determined to succeed and not give up.

Success and failure, in my opinion, are the same.  They are just two sides of one thing.  The only people who do not fail are those who do nothing.  And those who do nothing will never experience great success.   So, if you don’t like failure, sit back and do nothing.  Oh, by-the-way, you will never accomplish anything great either!  If you are tired of failing, quit!  Quitting, however, is the worse thing that a human being can do.  Quitting is a tragedy and many have quit just one or two failures from reaching the success they were seeking. Don’t let that be you!   

I wish you great success (and failure)!

Exercise Your Faith for Success

According to the Bible, faith is the “assurance” of things hoped for, the “proof “of what is not seen.   Assurance and proof are pretty strong words for something that you don’t have in your experience yet; for something that you can not SEE.   But when you think about it, it’s all a matter of perspective.

A great way to understand this is to look at a farmer.  He sows seeds and has “faith” that a crop will be produced.  He doesn’t worry or fret about it; he just expects that it will happen.  He has faith that the seed planted will produce the intended crop.

My employer deposits my wages directly into my bank account.  I have faith that the monies I earned will be in my account every other Friday.  I do not give it a second thought.  I “know” that the money will be there even though it’s not in my “experience” now.   I don’t check my account to see if it’s there; I know that it is.  The farmer learned to trust the seed and I learned to trust my employer by exercising faith.  The more one learns to trust, the more faith they develop.

Faith needs to be developed.  The more you exercise or use your faith, the greater it will become.  The speed that your dreams become a reality depends on the development of your faith.  Anything you can conceive and believe can be achieved, but it largely depends on your faith, the belief that what you conceive is achieved already.  It is just a matter of time before it’s manifestation.

Thomas Edison “knew” that he would develop the light bulb.  Henry Ford “knew” that he would develop the V-8 engine.  These gentlemen had no concept that it could not be done.  The farmer knew the corn crop was in the seed in his hand.  All of these men “knew” that what they dreamed was done already; they just needed to discover its reality.  These men acted in faith.

Henry Ford said, “If you believe you can or you can’t; you are right.”  Whatever you believe is so, IS SO.  If you believe you can be a millionaire and have the faith necessary; it will be so.  It is just a matter of time.  Just like the farmer who has faith in the seed, if you have faith in your ability to be a millionaire, it can be your reality.

Being a millionaire is not a matter of smarts; it’s a matter of belief.  What do believe about you?  Do you believe what others say about you?  Do you believe what your parents, teachers, or the environment has programmed into you?  Do you know that you were created by God to express greatness?  That greatness does not depend on education or smarts; it depends on your faith!  By faith, great things are achieved, even “unbelievable” things.  So, exercise to grow your faith and watch your life change for the better.  What is now invisible will manifest before your eyes in due time.

Faith will lead you to action.  Faith will lead you to take steps to realize the thing you hope for.  When you get those hunches, act on them as quickly as possible.  For it is the action that you take, based on those hunches, that will lead you to achieve the successes that you desire. 

Thomas Edison took over 10,000 actions to achieve what he believed was possible.  Henry Ford took over 2 years to convince his engineers that 8 cylinders could be put in a single engine block.  His “educated” engineers said that it could not be done, but Ford’s faith showed them that it could be done!  The farmer took action to cultivate the land and sow the seed knowing that a crop, with a yield far greater than what was sown, would come forth. 

So what are you waiting for?  Exercise your faith, follow those hunches, take action, and just watch your dreams manifest before your eyes!  Remember that in due season you will reap if you do not faint.  That is not my opinion; it is a universal, God-given law that works every single time!

Have fun!  I look forward to hearing of your stories of faith producing successes in your life.

Thoughts are Things

Note:  This is a lesson that I wrote as an assignment for the 30-day Mental Cleanse offered by Mentoring for Free.  This lesson is based on what I received from my reading of Chapter 1 of THINK AND GROW RICH, by Napoleon Hill:

Thoughts are things, very important things.  For it is by our thoughts that we create our life.   I am amazed that I have gone through so much of my life not realizing just how important thoughts are.  I have ALLOWED so many thoughts to make home in my mind over the years it makes me sick…literally!

No one told me how to control my thoughts and just how POWERFUL they are.  They can give you life or kill you.  Thoughts can bring wealth, love, joy, peace, or take it all away and leave you in poverty, worry, doubt, fear, and turmoil.  It’s only a thought; but WOW, how powerful a single thought can be!

I love the story about Edwin C. Barnes.  Here is a man with a definite thought that became emotionalized into a burning desire.  That emotionalized thought mingled with his determination to be Thomas Edison’s business partner made it all come into being.  It was impossible to be any other way.  He didn’t LET obstacles get in his way.  His burning desire mowed down every obstacle until his dream became a reality.

The same was true for Henry Ford.  He wanted the impossible: 8-cyliders in a single block.  All the “professionals” told him it couldn’t be done, but did that stop Mr. Ford?  Nothing can stop a person with an emotionalized thought that has been worked up into burning desire and faith to know that what is not seen, IS.  Wow!

Now lets talk about me.  I have had desires in the past, but at the first sign of frustration, I quickly dropped what I wanted.  At the first word of criticism, I threw in the towel.  I was like the gold miner, who, as long as “some” gold could be found was happy and on fire.  However, when the “gold” quit coming up, I quit!  I probably quit just a few days, week, or months short of a major success.  I will never allow that to happen again.

Well, since being involved with Mentoring for Free and all the great people there, I have DETERMINED not to give up again.  I have a thought, just a thought, to experience massive success.  I have been able to turn that thought into a burning desire.  Many times I feel like Edwin Barnes must have felt working for Thomas Edison all those months, “Will my desire ever come to pass?”  However, this time it’s different.  There is a “knowing” that what I desire has already happened.  I just await its manifestation.  I am determined to build a strong, and successful network marketing organization and bring lots of others with me.  I am determined to reach financial freedom and will keep on keeping on UNTIL the time of manifestation. 

Why do I feel this way?  Because I have read, seen, and heard other people doing it.  If they can, I will.  I am spending time working on me.  I am monitoring my thoughts and filling my mind with what is possible and keeping it off the bad news being circulated by our media and negative “friends.”  Wow, all things ARE possible to the one who believes.  

Discouragement - The Test of Success

It is not uncommon for network marketers to experience discouragement.  Discouragement often comes when you are trying to break out of the box.  When you are reaching for your dreams you are doing something that 97% of the population never does.  Dreaming is one thing; taking action to make those dreams come true is quite another.

Thomas Edison, no doubt, got discouraged when trying to discover the way to make the incandescent work.  He tried over 10,000 times!  Even though would get discouraged he kept on trying until the answer came...and it did!  

Napoleon Hill, author of THINK AND GROW RICH, got discouraged while trying to come up with the success formula to riches.  He spend over 20 years studying over 500 of the wealthiest people on the planet to come up with his now famous formula for success.  Though he was ridiculed for his attempt to do such a work, he kept on going until he succeeded.  Dr. Hill has probably produced more millionaires through his work than we will ever know.  Did he let discouragement keep him down?  If it did, the world would be a different place today.

My point is that discouragement must and will come.  It's what you do with it that makes all the difference.  God rewards those who persevere when others would just quit, and most will.

Are you a quitter, or are you one of the 3% that will fight on against all odds?  I can assure you that is you conquer discouragement you WILL eventually find the success you seek; you will reach the dreams you long for.