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Motivation for success Arthur Marara: Never ever give up Saturday, 28 April 2012 18:38

“Never walk away from failure. On the contrary, study it carefully and imaginatively for its hidden assets.” Michael Korda.

Your perception of failure can be your greatest asset or greatest liability in life. It is not in each and every situation that you will succeed at whatever you will be doing.

Believe it or not, failure will always be part and parcel of life. What will make the difference is your approach to failure. There are times that you think you have done your best but you are shocked that things are not working or coming out the way you want them to.

Failure is not the end of the road. You will see shortly.

Lessons from Abraham Lincoln’s life There are many examples of people who have failed in their lives. I have discussed Thomas Edison at length in preceding articles. There is an individual who appears on the $5 United States note who experienced failure in and out but rose to prominence nevertheless.

The man is Abraham Lincoln.

The following facts might be of inspiration to you: he lost his job in 1832; was defeated for legislature in 1832; failed in business in 1833; elected to legislature in 1834; his sweetheart Ann Rutledge died in 1835; he had nervous breakdown in 1836; he was defeated for Speaker in 1838; he was also defeated for nomination for Congress in 1843; elected to Congress in 1846; lost renomination in 1848; rejected for Land Officer in 1849; defeated for Senate in 1854, defeated for nomination for Vice-President in 1856; again, defeated for Senate in 1858 but was elected President in 1860. What more can you take? Yet Lincoln held on. He refused to give up.

He then rose to become one of America’s greatest presidents in history. Do not give up!

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Motivation for success Arthur Marara: Never ever give up Saturday, 28 April 2012 18:38

Michael Jordan’s formulae The name Michael Jordan is synonymous with basketball. He is one of the most respected basketball players in the world. Michael Jordan himself realised the importance of failure. In one of the adverts for Nike he had the following to say, “I have missed more than 9 000 shots in my career. I have lost almost 300 games. On 26 occasions I have been entrusted to take the game-winning shot, and I missed. I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”

Do not lose heart. Failing is winning! If you fail, it means you were doing something. Dr Robert Schuller once said, “It is better to attempt something and fail rather to do nothing and succeed.”

Quit quitting In each and every path of a great person impediments will always be there in the form of temporary defeats (failure). Every great person knows what it means to rise from mistakes or failure. There would not be anything meaningful that would be there today if all people chose to take the easy way out — quitting. It is always easy to say, “I quit”. Success never makes room for people who are ready to give up when failure knocks on their door. Champions are failures who declined to quit on their dreams. They rose and made the best of their mistakes. Behind each and every great achievement lay a failure which was translated into the success that we all see today. What distinguishes an achiever from a non-achiever is the decision to hold on when all other people decide to throw in the towel.

Overcome fear of failure Do not allow the fear of failure deter you from going for what you believe in. “The men who have done big things are those who were not afraid to attempt big things; who were not afraid to risk failure in order to gain success.” — [B.C. Forbes].

Failure is not always as it might seem to be to a lot of people — end of the road. Failure is never final but it can be an awesome beginning of great things.

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Motivation for success Arthur Marara: Never ever give up Saturday, 28 April 2012 18:38

There is something to be learnt from the mistakes.

Within each and every failure there is a great package of lessons to be learnt. I have learnt more from my failures than I did from my successes. Failure gives you an opportunity to rethink and find ways of correcting where you went wrong.

This is only possible when you wear a positive mentality and resolve not to abandon your dream. Joseph Sugarman aptly summarised the approach on failure, "Not many people are willing to give failure a second opportunity. They fail once and it is all over. The bitter pill of failure is often more than most people can handle. If you are willing to accept failure and learn from it, if you are willing to consider failure as a blessing in disguise and bounce back, you have got the essential of harnessing one of the most powerful success forces."

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Do not give in, do not give up Most of the time when we seem to be failing this is when people come with all sorts of advice.

The most common advice is that of giving up. With this approach you do not have to stress yourself with pursuing the dream to the end.

Do not find comfort in the advice of people who tell you to quit and settle for mediocrity. What defines a person is not how many times you have fallen but the number of times you have gathered and picked yourself when you fell. A lot of people disadvantage themselves by giving up when they are almost there. Do not take comfort in mediocrity. Most people who have given up find solace in the fact that other people tried and failed. Successful people are those who lacked sympathy and empathy for mediocrity. You were not created to be other people. You were created to be you; this is the reason why you have to live your life to the fullest of potential.

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You are inches away from your breakthrough Most of the time people give up when they are close to reaching their dreams. A story is documented in the Bible about the 12 spies who were sent to explore the land the Lord had promised them.

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Motivation for success Arthur Marara: Never ever give up Saturday, 28 April 2012 18:38

Ten of the spies actually chose to give up simply because there were giants in the land that God had promised the Israelites. Two men (Caleb and Joshua), however, refused to throw in the towel; they told the people that it was more than possible to take over the Promised Land. God never gives you dreams he knows that you cannot achieve. You need to resolve in your heart that no matter how attractive quitting might be, I will hold on and fight to the end. There is more honour in finishing the race than starting it.

It does not matter which area of life you might be having problems, you can surely make a difference when you decide not to quit. You can extend the life of your marriage, relationship, business and even life when you decide to hold on. Failures do not define who you are.

Take time to retrace your steps and correct where you might have gone wrong. Capitalise on your mistakes and failures and you will surely enjoy the taste of success. Do not let failure immobilise you. Take action. I will leave you this thought this week, “I can accept failure but I can't accept not trying.” [Michael Jordan].

- Arthur Marara is an attorney, author and international motivational speaker. He is also the founder and chairperson of the Greatness Clinic Trust. Kindly send your feedback to info@greatnesstrust.

com, or join him

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