Failure can be a beautiful thing. Failure is actually a growth lesson that can quickly teach us what not to do. Most people have the wrong perception of failure. They see it as something to be avoided rather than something to be leveraged. Every failure can be one step closer to success. Robert Kennedy said, “Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.”

My mentor Dr. John C. Maxwell taught me that if you aren’t making any mistakes, it’s a sure sign you’re playing it too safe. Failure is a component of success. It is part of the learning process to greatness. We should never try to fail intentionally, but we must learn how to embrace the lessons failure teaches us. The road to success is filled with failures.

Though we may fail, that does not make us a failure. Though we may mess up, that doesn’t make us a mess up. Though we may have lost, that doesn’t make us a loser. It simply means that we have failed, messed up, and may have lost for the moment. There is always a tomorrow. Another day to shake off the dust and get back up. Disappointments are part of life, but they are not forever. Every one of us will fail at some point. We will miss the mark and fall short of our intended results. Think about these household names…

• Babe Ruth, who had the record for most home-runs, also had the record for most strikeouts.
• Michael Jordan was cut from the high school basketball team.
• Walt Disney went bankrupt seven times. He was fired by a newspaper editor because, “He lacked imagination and had no good ideas.”
• Star Wars received this review from a movie critic, “Dull new world, as exciting as last year’s wether report.”
• World famous artist Van Gogh sold one painting in his lifetime.
• Steven Spielberg dropped out of high school and applied to attend film school three times but was unsuccessful due to his C grade average.
• Theodor Seuss Giesel, Dr. Seuss, gave us Cat in the Hat and Green Eggs and Ham. At first many didn’t think he would succeed. Twenty seven different publishers rejected Dr. Seuss’s first book “To Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street.”
• The Beatles were rejected by many record labels. In a famous rejection, the label said, “Guitar groups are on the way out” and “The Beatles have no future in show business.”
• Henry Ford forgot to put reverse in his first automobile, but it didn’t stop him from building cars.
• Daniel Boone was once asked by a reporter if he had ever been lost in the wilderness. Boone thought for a moment and replied, “No, but I was once bewildered for about three days.”

The key is to keep our eyes forward. Everyone has, is, and will face failures in their life. The question is not will I ever fail, the question is, “How will you respond to failure?” If you allow it to keep you down for the count, you will miss out on great things. I love how motivational speaker Les Brown puts it, “When life knocks you down, try to land on your back. Because if you can look up, you can get up.” Building on failure is how we reach high enough to become successful in what we do. Thomas J. Watson, the former chairman of IBM said, “If you want to succeed double your failure rate.”

Don’t seek out failure, but don’t be afraid of it either! Congratulations you failed…that just means your one step closer to success!