A winner is a dreamer who never gives up.
Nelson Mandela
Difference between American and European investors
A couple of years ago, I read an article in one of the online magazines on entrepreneurship, that discussed the differences between American and European start-ups investors. One of the problems with European start-up investors is the conservative nature that makes them detest anything called failure; they’re only after success. They avoid failure with so much attention that they fail to succeed.
Different is their American partners who would fund start-ups and encourage them to fail soon because each failure brings them closer to the discovery of new ideas/ prospects. This article so much troubled me that when I was asked to hold a seminar for some young people, I wholeheartedly accepted just to discuss this topic with them.
Make mistakes and make them fast and young
The fear of failure and making mistakes has so permeated our society that several people pay more attention to avoiding failure than they do to achieving success. They are more concerned about looking at the rear mirror than they are at facing the road in front of them. They look back at the stories they heard or saw of people who didn’t succeed and decide to park their vehicles.
Crippled by fear, they prefer to remain average than explore their full potential. They rehearse the laughter of their peers, their contrite faces and tucked tails if they lose that investment or if they do not pass that exam or if that new operation doesn’t work out or if that adventure turns sour etc.
But I say, make mistakes and make them fast and young. In fact, search for mistakes and failure. I’m not talking about mistakes that’ll ruin your life and destiny. The truth is that if you’re afraid of making mistakes, you cannot grow. And only a person that works, makes mistakes.
Success is going from one failure to another without loss of enthusiasm.
Winston Churchill
You failed, but you are not a failure
I often tell myself, “I made a mistake but I’m not a mistake. I’m created in God’s image and after His likeness, so, I can’t be a mistake. I make mistakes because I’m a man, I fail because I’m dust and, so, limited in my scope of understanding and foresight, but I’m neither a failure nor a mistake.”
You see, one of the many beautiful things about God is that He has made every day to have twenty-four hours. So, if I failed yesterday, I have a new fresh mint of twenty-four hours today for another shot at my goals.
There is a strange comfort in knowing that no matter what happens today, the Sun will rise again tomorrow.
Aaron Lauritsen
Take the rough road
Robert Schuller in his book Tough Times Never Last but Tough People Do tells a story of a farmer who never bothered to sort his potatoes after the harvest. We know that potatoes, after harvest, must be spread out and sorted so you’ll sell them for different prices based on their sizes to maximise profit. Now, this farmer never bothered to do any of those but seemed to make more gain.
One day, a curious neighbour asked him what his secret was. His response was so simple yet intriguing; “I load my wagon with the potatoes and take the roughest road to town”, he said. “During this eight-mile trip, the little potatoes always fall to the bottom, the medium potatoes land in the middle while the big potatoes rise to the top.”
You see, don’t let rough times of failure and discouragement deter you. You’re meant for the top. The failures of today are the stories we’ll tell when we come to celebrate your numerous successes. They’ll be the good old days.
Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy: when I fall, I shall arise; when I sit in darkness, the Lord shall be a light unto me.
Micah 7:8
You may be at the stage where everything looks like a blighted ovum. Don’t worry, you’re pregnant. And like Isaiah 66: 7, you’ll soon be delivered of a healthy child.
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