''You build on failure. You use it as a stepping stone. Close the door on the past. You don't try to forget the mistakes, but you don't dwell on it. You don't let it have any of your energy, or any of your time, or any of your space''
~ Johnny Cash ~
Motivation Monday - Richard's Insight
The issue of failure, setback, defeat or negative 'unintended consequences' has come up quite a bit of late, hence today's quote.
I think Johnny Cash had the right approach...use failure and defeat as a learning aid or a stepping stone to improved future performance instead. Don't let it drag you down.
Note this: EVERY human being will have experienced failure, defeat or setback in their lives...with no exception!
Don't let a fear of failure hold you back from achieving success either...sometimes, we have to endure failure, defeat or setback BEFORE we are ready to experience and handle success as well.
We recently 'failed' with a property project we were looking at. During the acquisition process, we discovered some legal complications that brought about added risk and some potential for added costs, which if not addressed would impact the project downside negatively. Whilst, they did not change the project upside, they could give rise to added risk to the downside. So, we tried to renegotiate the price to offset this cost and risk. We failed to agree a reduced price and so we pulled out of the project in order to protect us and our investment partners from the added risk by proceeding otherwise.
Are we failures? No, we are not...but we did fail to win this project and as a result we learnt a lot more along the way. We also learnt quite a lot about our investment partners too! We are not worried, fear-struck or deterred and in fact we move on to our Plan B and even our Plan C more determined than before. We will not concede defeat...we are not failures...we just found a project that did not work as well as we felt initially it would and that's the point of undertaking the required checks during the acquisition phase.
Our egos were dented for a day or so and we did have to carry some abortive costs as a result of unrecoverable fees that we had incurred in getting to that point. But, crucially, we live to fight another day and are blessed with a greater experience and in some cases, a deeper relationship with some of our investment partners as a result. So, we learnt and developed much more as result.
Not that many people in property talk about setback, defeat and failure, however, EVERYONE has experienced it to a greater or lesser extent. If they say otherwise, they are either too inexperienced or lying quite frankly.
Take the learning and keep moving forward, don't let failure, setback and defeat stop you and don't be afraid to experience them either...it's part of the personal growth. But, do take steps to limit the damage and also the consequences, that's where we can be smart and that's exactly why we do the checks that we do and then accept swallowing a few quid in abortive costs, rather than risk losing our shirt on a potentially bad project.
You have to go with the rough and the smooth, striking the right balance between risk and reward, along with some built-in safety vales along the way. It's is about both mindset and process to achieve this, which I will elaborate on in this week's podcast...so look out for that.
In conclusion, we are stronger today than we were yesterday and our future success is also safeguarded by the setbacks we learn from along the way.
Build on your failure...it's not a very 'Western' trait, but it is a very essential one all the same!
#MotivationMonday