Hey you – you're a failure.
Maybe not today. Maybe not tomorrow. But at some point, whether it's work, relationships or a personal goal, you're going to stumble and you're going to fall.
We say this not to depress you, but to reflect an irrefutable human fact. If you're striving, ambitious, driving yourself towards any dream whatsoever, failure is part of the deal.
The good news is, failure is not the end game. Nor is it necessarily a bad thing. Rather, it's a vital part of success. Every person you admire took failure in their stride and turned it to their advantage. They were failures too. But don't take our word for it, take theirs...
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"Many of life's failures are people who did not realise how close they were to success when they gave up."
– Thomas A. Edison, inventor
"Every adversity, every failure, every heartache carries with it the seed on an equal or greater benefit."
– Napoleon Hill, author
"When I was young, I observed that nine out of ten things I did were failures. So I did ten times more work."
– George Bernard Shaw
"If at first you don't succeed, failure may be your style."
– Quentin Crisp
"I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody."
– Bill Cosby
"If you're not failing every now and again, it's a sign you're not doing anything very innovative."
– Woody Allen
"I honestly think it is better to be a failure at something you love than to be a success at something you hate."
– George Burns
"I can accept failure, everyone fails at something. But I can't accept not trying."
– Michael Jordan
"Why do I talk about the benefits of failure? Simply because failure meant a stripping away of the inessential. I stopped pretending to myself that I was anything other than what I was, and began to direct all my energy into finishing the only work that mattered to me."
– J. K. Rowling
"My great concern is not whether you have failed, but whether you are content with your failure."
– Abraham Lincoln
"Part of being a man is learning to take responsibility for your successes and for your failures. You can't go blaming others or being jealous. Seeing somebody else's success as your failure is a cancerous way to live."
– Kevin Bacon
"Winning is great, sure, but if you are really going to do something in life, the secret is learning how to lose. Nobody goes undefeated all the time. If you can pick up after a crushing defeat, and go on to win again, you are going to be a champion someday."
– Wilma Rudolph, Olympic champion
