The call of Success

It is only when a person bears failures with faith and courage that he gives the best proof of his character. Failure has a place in life. It is very necessary. However, even as success is not permanent, failure is not permanent

“Why do we have failures at all?” someone asked me. “If God had created a world in which there was only success what a wonderful world it would be!”

But when you come to think of it, it is failures that give a meaning to success. Wherever you have success, there is bound to be failure. The two go together. It is failure that draws out the best that is within us. It is failure that unfolds, unlocks our hidden powers. In the measure in which we face failures in the right spirit, in that measure the tremendous power that lies locked up within us is unfolded.

It is only when a person bears failures with faith and courage that he gives the best proof of character that anyone can give. Failure has a place in life. It is very necessary. But even as success is not permanent, failure is not permanent.

We must never ever forget that failures are not final. We fail only when we accept failure as final. We must learn to think of failures as stepping stones to success, not stopping stones.

Never feel that you are a failure. Rather believe that you are on the way to success. Failure occurs only when you accept it as a failure.

As Winston Churchill observed, “People occasionally stumble over the truth, but most pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing ever happened.”

When you stumble on the truth, recognise it! When you stumble on an obstacle, turn it into an opportunity. When you meet with failure, use it as a stepping stone to success.

Marketing experts tell us again and again: Success is the destination. Failure is how you get there. Here is what one of them, Richard Fenton, has to say on the subject: “To achieve significant success in today’s world, failure is not just a possibility. It’s a requirement. We must see success and failure for what they truly are. They’re not opposites, but instead opposite sides of the same coin.”

The truth is that fear of failure holds many of us back from achieving our true potential. “The common belief that businesses are more likely to fail than to succeed has led many to forgo the entrepreneurial experience, and the satisfaction and freedom it brings”, says a leading business journalist in the U.S. She points out that the rate of failure for small business ventures in the U.S. are quite low; but the perception is that it is rather high; and this makes people afraid to venture into entrepreneurship, and forgoing the possibility of making it big, on their own.

Nothing stops the man who desires to achieve success. The obstacles on his way only strengthen his powers of resolve. Every failure is a course to build his moral muscles.

If you wish to turn failure into success, if you wish to turn every obstacle into an opportunity, the conscious and the subconscious must cooperate with each other. The conscious mind with which we are familiar, the conscious self that thinks, that feels, that takes decisions this conscious self is a very tiny part of our consciousness. It is like the tip of an iceberg floating above water. The subconscious is much vaster. It is like a larger portion of an iceberg immersed inside the water.

But this subconscious cannot think for itself. It cannot decide what is right and what is wrong. It has no power of decision. If you believe that you cannot achieve something, if you believe that you cannot do something, if you believe that you cannot have something, the subconscious will take up your belief. Its job is only to see that it proves your beliefs. Whatever you believe in, your subconscious will create conditions, so that your beliefs are proved.

To turn obstacles into opportunities, you must have a strong belief in success, you must paint a picture of yourself succeeding.

If you consciously paint a picture of yourself as a successful person, success will definitely come to you. But if you are convinced that you are a failure even if you are placed in the best of circumstances, with the best of resources you will fail! Such is the law. If you think of scarcity, scarcity will befall you. If you imagine abundance, abundance will flow into you.