Your Successes Are More Important Than Your Failures

Your Successes Are More Important Than Your Failures

If you look back on your life, whether it’s life in general or your career, or just about anything else, most likely you will remember the good times more than the bad. Of course, that doesn’t mean everything has gone perfect and that you haven’t had your share of failures. The fact is everyone fails. Failure is a part of life and some might say that it’s even a necessary part of success. Failure is often very important because you can learn from your failures, which can help you overcome the mistakes you’ve made and not repeat them. That can lead to success. Therefore, it’s important to remember your failures so you don’t make the same mistakes twice, but you shouldn’t focus on them. That’s because your successes are more important than your failures.

Vinod Khosla – Co-Founder Sun Microsystems

During his visit to the Stanford Graduate School of Business as part of his “The View From The Top” talk, Sun Microsystems Co-Founder Vinod Khosla spoke on success and failure. “Try and fail,” he said, “but don’t fail to try.” Vinod discussed some of his successes and some of his failures, but he pointed out that people don’t remember your failures because your successes are more important. He explained in his talk that just a few months before he and his business partner started Sun Microsystems, they started another company. They received funding but the business, known as Data Dump, really never got off the ground. However, when he asked the crowd if any of them could name that business no one could. His point was that no one remembers your failures.

Secret to Success

So what’s the secret to success? According to Vinod: “The funny thing is with enough persistence, most things that seem impossible become possible. I’m always amazed at how often you can turn things around and at how often people take no for an answer too easily. Whether you’re trying to achieve a goal like get into business school – or my green card was the same way. My strategy was if I couldn’t convince immigration then I’d confuse them and I did. And they gave me green card.” Vinod continued: “The point is, if you really believe something then you try your best to make it happen. It doesn’t always happen but it happens most of the time. Things do work out if you persist. Not always, but I like to say failure does not matter, it’s success that matters.”

Persistence Is the Key

There are many ways to both define and achieve success in life and in business, but the real key is persistence. Don’t give up and don’t take no for an answer. Lastly, always remember to focus on your successes and not on your failures.

In this article we discussed why having emotional intelligence is more important that having a high IQ. Now I want to present the following questions to help you gage your level of focus:

• Do you remember what someone just told you during a conversation? If so, you could be missing information vital to your company.
• Can you clearly state the five-year plan for your business? If not, you could be focusing too much on minor crises.
• Can you remember your morning commute? If not, you’re too preoccupied with daily trivia.
• Do you pay more attention to your smartphone than the person you’re with?

Learning to better focus will help you work smarter, not harder and will help you get to the next level. The secret of success is being able to outline a pathway for your life. If you ask yourself, where do I want to be next month? Six months from now? A year from now? Five years from now? Move it all the way to the end of life. How do I want to define myself a success? The more you’re able to focus on who you are, and the direction of life you want to take, the more satisfied you will be with the results. There’s a lot of things out there for the taking, the world is yours, the opportunities are unlimited all we have to do though is want it.

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Alan Olsen, is the Host of the American Dreams Show and the Managing Partner of GROCO.com.  GROCO is a premier family office and tax advisory firm located in the San Francisco Bay area serving clients all over the world.

Alan L. Olsen, CPA, Wikipedia Bio

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The American Dreams show was the brainchild of Alan Olsen, CPA, MBA. It was originally created to fill a specific need; often inexperienced entrepreneurs lacked basic information about raising capital and how to successfully start a business.

Alan sincerely wanted to respond to the many requests from aspiring entrepreneurs asking for the information and introductions they needed. But he had to find a way to help in which his venture capital clients and friends would not mind.

The American Dreams show became the solution, first as a radio show and now with YouTube videos as well. Always respectful of interview guest’s time, he’s able to give access to individuals information and inspiration previously inaccessible to the first-time entrepreneurs who need it most.

They can listen to venture capitalists and successful business people explain first-hand, how they got to where they are, how to start a company, how to overcome challenges, how they see the future evolving, opportunities, work-life balance and so much more..

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