How to Eliminate Failure Forever
I recently came across a report entitled: “8 Reasons Rich People Hate Their Lives.” It’s funny because what the report is really about are the 8 mistakes entrepreneurs (that’s us) make in our thinking regarding what will make us happy.
It also says what actually will make us happy.
The title does grab you though, doesn’t it? Those of us who don’t consider ourselves in the “rich” category kinda want to hear what reasons rich people could possibly have to hate their lives, don’t we?
I loved this report. Each “reason” is short, sweet, and full of rich wisdom. It’s one of the best I’ve ever read, and I highly recommend it: The 8 Reasons Rich People Hate Their Lives (PDF).
It’s so good, I had a hard time choosing which part to highlight here. I wanted to talk about what would be most encouraging to VAs, so I finally decided on #5, which I’m going to call “How to Eliminate Failure Forever.”
The report outlines two different possible mindsets an entrepreneur might have: “fixed” or “growth.”
Those with the “fixed” mindset tend to come from the unconscious belief that they either “have it or they don’t.”
What this means is when a job, project, or launch doesn’t go as well as expected, or produce the results desired, they tend to blame themselves: “I’m lousy at this, I failed, I’m just not good at it, I can’t do it well . . . essentially they beat themselves up and feel like a failure.
Have you ever done that? I confess: in the past, I have. I had to learn how to switch to a different, more effective mindset. In fact, it’s a very common mistake for entrepreneurs to blame themselves. Many of the clients I’ve had over the years have learned to change that same mindset, with my help.
Why on earth do we do that? It’s painful and it doesn’t feel good. But it’s not really our fault. In the past, society has raised children to think success is achieved because they are smart or talented, and failure happens because they are dumb.
Think about your classmates in school. The ones who got D’s or F’s were considered dumb, and the ones who got A’s were considered smart, Right? It was just how it was. In other words, you either had it or you didn’t.
This mindset is a recipe for misery and failure. Because you’re not going to be instantly successful at everything you do. And if you decide you’re “just not good at something,” you might quit, and then you’ll never succeed.
So what’s the recipe for success? It’s called the “growth” mindset. Entrepreneurs with the growth mindset view a lack of results as feedback, not failure.
Rather than beat themselves up for not succeeding, they say to themselves “Ok, that didn’t work. Why not?” They analyze, make corrections, and try again.
They take an objective look at what they can change, so as to have a better result the next time.
Then when they succeed, they say to themselves: “Yes! I worked hard on that, and it worked!”
The key difference is the growth mindset attributes success to effort, and the fixed mindset attributes success to innate talent or ability. The truth is, anyone can get A’s in school, if they practice, study and work at it.
True, some may have to put more effort into it than others, but so what? The fact remains that anyone can do it. It’s about effort, NOT about innate gifts, ability or talent.
It’s about figuring out what needs to be done to succeed, then doing it. Thomas Edison, a successful inventor with the growth mindset, failed at inventing the light bulb 10,000 times. But around the 700th time he is quoted as saying:
“I have not failed 700 times. I have not failed once. I have succeeded in proving that those 700 ways will not work. When I have eliminated the ways that will not work, I will find the way that will work.”
Thomas Edison knew that failure is a mindset, not an outcome. So do all successful entrepreneurs, especially millionaires.
So next time you catch yourself feeling like a failure because something didn’t work out the way you expected, remember Thomas Edison and the millionaire mindset. Stop beating yourself up, figure out what didn’t work, and try again.
In other words, choose to eliminate failure forever.
To quote the report [The 8 Reasons Rich People Hate Their Lives (PDF)]:
“Wise, happy millionaires adopt a growth mindset. When they fall into fixed mindset thinking, they recognize it and change how they’re talking to themselves. They know that mindset can be changed at will. And they know that success comes from taking action, not from intelligence or talent.”
Want a little help with your mindset? Contact me for a 20 min. breakthrough strategy session – I’m offering them absolutely free this month!
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