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Success Advice

3 Ways Failure Helps You Succeed

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Of all the obstacles on the road to success, the fear of failure is the greatest. It doesn’t help that our society looks at any failure as the result of a lack of character or personal deficiency. Each time you attempt to achieve greatly you run the risk of falling short, experiencing embarrassment, and doubting yourself.

As a result, there is a lot of cultural avoidance on the subject of failure that trains people to avoid it at all cost. The problem with avoiding failure is that it makes you avoid the very thing that will help you grow and achieve your dreams. 

Failure is a critical component to your greatest success but only if you have the right mindset. Failure isn’t fatal but instead offers you valuable lessons on the way to achieving your goals.

Here are 3 ways failure helps you succeed:

1. It keeps you growing

Having the right mindset in the face of a setback will determine whether allow it to keep you stuck or grow past it.

Carol Dweck, author of “Mindset: The New Psychology of Success”, writes about the importance of having a growth mindset instead of a fixed mindset. Fixed-mindsets held by an individual reveal a stagnant way of thinking. That there performance is just stuck at a certain level and lower standards are then accepted. A growth-mindset comes from the position that your condition can be improved by focused effort and incremental improvement.

A tool that you can use to help you build a growth-mindset is the SWOT analysis method. SWOT analysis is an acronym for a structured planning method that stands for “strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats”.

If your goal is to get in terrific shape and then lower your bodyfat from 18% to 12% or lower but your progress is getting stalled then use SWOT to help. Your strengths may be that you’re physically, very strong but your weakness is that you don’t like cardio training so you avoid it.

You then look opportunities to support your goals that emphasize your strengths like high-intensity weight training, to burn up calories without the need for cardio. However, future threats like mental burnout are possible so make plans in advance to periodically change up your workout routine to avoid burnout.

SWOT can be used for personal, career, or business goals as long as you remain honest about your strengths and weaknesses and apply all four steps. Skipping a step is like cutting off one of the legs of a chair. Eliminate one, the chair becomes wobbly, skip two steps then the chair falls over. Bottom line, don’t skip steps or you’ll end up cheating yourself.

“You won’t believe what you can accomplish by attempting the impossible with the courage to repeatedly fail better.” – Tim Ferriss

2. It refocuses your efforts

Arnold Schwarzenegger burst onto the bodybuilding scene in Europe winning every contest he entered. But, he soon lost a contest to a contestant who had a smaller physique compared to Arnold’s. Schwarzenegger later commented that it was one of the only times he ever cried in his life because he truly thought he was the better bodybuilder.

Soon, he refocused and reviewed the results of the contest. Studying photos and talking with judges, he realized the tides were shifting.

The sport had changed from empathizing sheer size to a more defined, muscular physique. He then adopted new training methods to help him continue to grow his body but refine it at the same time.

When he emerged, he made a quantum leap in improvement that redefined the standard for the sport. He went on to win contest after contest including the coveted Mr. Olympia title multiple times. He later took this approach and applied it to business, becoming a best-selling author, real estate investment, and becoming a major Hollywood action star and eventually claiming the governorship of California.

Going back and refocusing on the lessons learned from that failure set him up to succeed wildly in the years to come.

3. You learn to set yourself up to win

When my son was around 5-years old I had taken him to a park where he noticed some teenage kids playing basketball. I could tell he was enthralled at them playing the game. I asked him if he would like to play but he began to withdraw dropping his gaze and looking dejected.

Performing at such a high level was beyond his current experience and well beyond his comfort zone. His fear of failure had already begun to limit what he thought he was capable of causing him to quit before he ever tried.

To help, I bought a small basketball hoop and stand that stood around 5 feet off the ground as well a smaller basketball that he could handle. On his first day of practice with me he was still hesitant. I told him to just give it a try and shoot the ball but he was still afraid. After he did that for a few times, he was willing to shoot the ball acting more bold with each attempt.

My son is 11 now and still a big basketball fan. He plays in the park with the bigger kids and though he is smaller than most of the kids he plays with he holds his own and gets better with every game.

In life, the standard which we judge ourselves as successful can often be too high. Consequently, we never set ourselves up for the small wins that lead to the bigger, more satisfying wins.

“Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try Again. Fail again. Fail better.” – Samuel Beckett

Conclusion

Society has set a standard that a person’s failures define them as a failure. This is unfortunate because failure isn’t something to be avoided but embraced.

Just beyond your comfort zone lies the place where you reach the upper limits of your performance and ability. Victories may be small but they keep you moving forward to becoming more capable and, ultimately, achieving your dreams.

How has failure helped you succeed? Please leave your thoughts below!

Image courtesy of Twenty20.com

Billy Williams is a business strategist, consultant, and author who specializes in lead generation and content marketing. He writes a weekly column at www.billywilliams.net on digital marketing, raising productivity, creating more income streams, peak performance, and other related topics.

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Success Advice

How to Alter Your Business Approach With Technological Advancements

Keeping up with technological trends has become a challenge for almost every business owner.

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Image Credit: Midjourney

Technology’s evolution has impacted everything, and business is no exception. Keeping up with technological trends has become a challenge for almost every business owner. Entrepreneurs unable to do so are being wiped out of the market.

There is no doubt that AI (Artificial Intelligence) and ML (Machine Learning) have taken over the business world. These technological advancements are impacting decision-making, success percentages, and other entrepreneurial aspects.

Adapting to these developments is integral to business success. Let’s explore how you can accomplish these milestones.

Embed the strength of AI and ML.

AI has modified business operations in major ways. For instance, companies have employed bots for customer support. These bots go through an effective learning process via Machine Learning before being able to answer like humans.  

Bots can also perform detailed data analytics and make business moves with high success percentages.

ML is used more for the analysis of data chunks and generating successful predictions. This simply means that business owners do not have to worry about large-scale financial losses. 

In terms of deployment and usage, a reputed company like Netflix employs machine learning for decision-making.

Blockchain is increasing the count of business opportunities

Tampering of financial transactions is quite common and causes severe monetary damage to customers. With the rise of digital payments, this risk has increased. 

Blockchain is used to elevate your experience for monetary transfers. It combats penetrating events to extract confidential customer information. 

Most business sectors are using block chain but finance and supply chain management sections have a higher count. These two corporate sections have several monetary deposits and withdrawals taking place. 

In terms of percentage, approximately 72% and 5% of finance and supply chain firms have implemented block chain successfully.

Dedicate Yourself to Continuous Learning and Individual Development

You invest in learning some of the very important skills, including digital marketing, financial management, and how to gain customers as an entrepreneur.

You need to set up your knowledge base about doing business on Coursera and Udemy with the basics that are necessary for the business, building further by networking with experts through webinars.

Besides, Agile methodology will introduce elasticity to your company: this review and feedback system with further correction regularly will allow for enhancing efficiency and promptly reacting to the market.

Developing key skills to achieve goals

Running a business successfully is not only about having niche/domain knowledge. Business owners need to have communication / soft skills as well in addition to niche information.

Here are some key technical/domain-related areas that business owners should have a strong grip on.

Data Storage on Cloud: These days, companies do not store their data on physical servers. Therefore business owners should know how data is stored/edited/removed/updated via AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, and other platforms.

Data Analysis/Interpretation Qualities: These days, data is as precious as gold. Business owners with data analysis abilities make correct predictions. As a result, their ventures grow in volume.

Development/Coding Knowledge

Programming knowledge gives business owners an edge whether the application is developed in-house or outsourced. It assists in getting updates deployed and handling application underperformance without getting professional support every time.

Hacking proof framework

There is no benefit of having an advanced automated system if can be penetrated. Successful business owners have above-average knowledge of cyber security and hacking attempts. They are able to choose top-notch anti-hacking software without much of an ambiguity.

Communication Abilities/Soft Skills

Here are some key communication qualities that business owners should have:

Communication/Conversation: Business owners should use to-the-point sentences in both written and oral communication.

Issue Resolution Abilities: Business owners should be able to drill down to problems and solve them. This is done successfully only if an entrepreneur has in-depth business domain knowledge.

Agile Implementations

It is mandatory for business owners to have knowledge of iterative/agile models. With such a competitive environment, it is impossible for business owners to succeed without adopting an agile framework.

Create a productive well-crafted Business Strategy

A productive business venture starts with a clear vision. The first factor making a business successful is the idea behind it. It helps with endless growth and combating competition successfully. Katherine Philips once mentioned that business goals are inevitable if goals are set concretely.

  • Goals should be based on smart achievements instead of complexity. Focus on the value that each one of them adds. 
  • Business objectives should not be vague. Key indicators should be constructed to measure the success/failure of each milestone.
  • Be realistic when setting goals. Do not aim at impossible milestones since they can be demotivating.
  • Milestones/goals need to be time-bound. Set a completion deadline for each one of them. 
  • Business goals should not be alien. Owners can think out of the box but not be obsolete / unrelated.

Create a productive well-crafted Business Strategy

Business owners cannot succeed without having a network. Some tips help in this case. Attend conferences and professional gatherings to connect with other entrepreneurs.
Here are some other related points business owners should pay attention to.

  • Attend meetings and conferences to stay updated with trends and meet business owners who already have well-set ventures. This helps in enhancing the learning curve of new / growing entrepreneurs.
  • Being a part of business communities/groups is very productive. When one shares opinions and discusses decision-making tactics, it helps in preventing errors and enhancing success rate.
  • Even the most experienced business owners have mentors as learning never stops. Take part in mentorship programs so there is an assurance that you are following the correct roadmap.

Conclusion

There is absolutely no doubt that business dimensions have evolved with technological advancements. Successful entrepreneurs have grabbed these changes in due course of time and continue to evolve. On the other hand, people following old paths and conventional steps fade out of competition. In a nutshell, keep an eye on the processes and practices you follow as these factors decide success rate.

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Success Advice

Understanding the Power of Yes and No: How to Create Boundaries For Success

These words have a significant impact on how our success unfolds

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The two smallest yet most powerful words in life, “Yes” and “No,” have a big impact on our growth on both personal and professional levels. In addition to affecting the choices we make every day, these words have a significant impact on how our success unfolds. (more…)

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Motivation

From Couch Potato to Go-Getter: A Step-by-Step Motivation Plan for Everyone

By understanding what motivates you, you can turn your dreams into reality

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How to be motivated
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Are you tired of feeling like a couch potato? Do you want to transform your life and become a go-getter? You’re not alone! Many people struggle with motivation, but the good news is that change is possible. (more…)

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Success Advice

10 Micro Financial Habits for More Wealth and Peace of Mind

The World Economic Forum still reports that half of U.S. adults lack financial literacy

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micro financial habits
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You’ve heard about developing financial habits, but what about micro-financial habits? Micro habits are the tiny things you can do every day with minimal effort that, together, transform your future. (more…)

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