Invictus by Cerulean vii
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"You're making a common mistake," he said. "You're thinking of failure as the enemy of success. But it isn't at all. Failure is a teacher--a harsh one, perhaps, but the best. You say you have a desk full of rejected manuscripts? That's great! Every one of those manuscripts was rejected for a reason. Have you pulled them to pieces looking for that reason? That's what I have to do when an idea backfires or a sales program fails. You've got to put failure to work for you."
He folded his napkin and put it beside his plate. "You can be discouraged by failure--or you can learn from it. So go ahead and make mistakes. Make all you can. Because, remember, that's where you'll find success. On the far side of failure."
~Arthur Gordon, quoting Thomas J. Watson
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"Failures
'Tis better to have tried in vain,
Sincerely striving for a goal,
Than to have lived upon the plain
An idle and a timid soul.
'Tis better to have fought and spent
Your courage, missing all applause,
Than to have lived in smug content
And never ventured for a cause.
For those who try and fail may be
The founders of a better day;
Though never theirs the victory,
From them shall others learn the way."
~Edgar Guest
~*~
"Fear of failure
So much of life involves risk
and the possibility of failure.
If you are not afraid of failure,
you will take many more risks in your life.
The more risks you take,
the more alive you will feel.
You are afraid of failure
because you fear rejection.
The moment you give up seeking
acceptance from others,
your fear of rejection will disappear.
And with it, the fear of failure."
~Leonard Jacobson
