Bouncing Back

And What You Can Learn From It

There have been all kinds of books and articles written that address how we should respond when personal problems, defeats or failures strike in our lives. I've learned a lot from these resource and continue to find new tidbits of information or insight in every new resource I read. However, there is one idea that appears in every single source on this subject that I've ever read. It has been shown again and again that our failures ultimately provide us with an ideal learning opportunity to make us even stronger and less likely to fail a second time when the next opportunity appears. Quite simply, from our failures we will learn where our weaknesses lie, and we can use this knowledge to build new skills and mitigate our weaknesses. And, in most cases, we simply cannot gain this valuable information without experiencing the negative events of our lives.



This theme is often prevelant when a successful entrepreneur is interviewed about how they achieved their successes. Almost universally and without exception, they will say that they suffered many painful defeats and setbacks before finding the winning combination of business strategies that resulted in extravagant successes. If we examine this a bit closer and look behind the headlines, we find an important concept to help us in our own lives.

Specifically, what happened to the entrepreneurs who didn't succeed and weren't interviewed? Were they less smart or less talented? Did they have a poor product or marketing plan? Did their funding capital dry up before they acheived profitability? Well, these might be the possible reasons in a few cases. But the more likely answer should be obvious -- they gave up in the face of defeat or problems. In contrast, our successful entrepreneurs took stock of what happened that lead to a setback, used that information to adjust their strategies, and then tried once more... over and over again, until they finally got it right!

Luckily, this principle is not limited to business ventures and entrepreneurs. What about people who diet successfully after several previous attempts; or parents who successfully learn to adjust their tactics with their emotional, chaotic teenagers; or others who lose their jobs for political reasons even though their work performance is excellent, but then succeed more strongly with a new company. This concept is powerful and universal: defeat occurs as a result of either the details in our plan or in our execution of the plan. We must learn to always evaluate what went wrong, adjust our plan or our execution, and try again until success is inevitable.

You see, we are learning creatures who are capable of limitless growth and change. We experience life, we learn, we adapt, and then we are stronger when it is time to try again. So if you've had a setback that's left you feeling vulnerable and scared, take a deep breath and ask yourself what you've learned from the experience. What went wrong? What could you do differently the next time? And soon you'll realize there will be a next time. And you'll be stronger and better prepared to succeed when your next chance comes around.