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    Failing Forward: Turning Mistakes into Stepping Stones for Success
    Failing Forward: Turning Mistakes into Stepping Stones for Success
    Failing Forward: Turning Mistakes into Stepping Stones for Success
    Ebook262 pages4 hours

    Failing Forward: Turning Mistakes into Stepping Stones for Success

    By John C. Maxwell

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    About this ebook

    Are some people born to achieve anything they want while others struggle? What is the real reason for their success? John C. Maxwell has the answer: The difference between average people and achieving people is their perception of and response to failure.

    Most people are never prepared to deal with failure. Bestselling author John C. Maxwell says that if you are like him, you feared it, misunderstood it, and ran away from it. However, he has learned to make failure his friend, and he can teach you to do the same.

    Maxwell takes a closer look at failure and reveals that the secret of moving beyond failure is to use it as a lesson and a stepping-stone.

    In Failing Forward, Maxwell will show you:

    • the key main reasons people fail,
    • how to master fear instead of being mastered by it,
    • and positive benefits can accompany negative experiences.

    Filled with action suggestions and real-life stores, Failing Forward is a strategic guide that will help you move beyond mistakes to fulfill your potential and achieve success.

    Discover how to confidently look the prospect of failure in the eye and move forward anyway. In life, the question is not?if?you will have problems, but how you are going to deal with them? Stop failing backward and start failing forward!

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherThomas Nelson
    Release dateApr 1, 2007
    ISBN9781418508326
    Author

    John C. Maxwell

    John C. Maxwell is a #1 New York Times bestselling author, coach, and speaker who has sold more than 33 million books in fifty languages. He has been identified as the #1 leader in business and the most influential leadership expert in the world. His organizations - the John Maxwell Company, The John Maxwell Team, EQUIP, and the John Maxwell Leadership Foundation - have translated his teachings into seventy languages and used them to  train millions of leaders from every country of the world. A recipient of the Horatio Alger Award, as well as the Mother Teresa Prize for Global Peace and Leadership from the Luminary Leadership Network, Dr. Maxwell influences Fortune 500 CEOs, the presidents of nations, and entrepreneurs worldwide. For more information about him visit JohnMaxwell.com.

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    Reviews for Failing Forward

    4/5

    178 ratings12 reviews

    What our readers think

    Readers find this title to be an awesome and worthy book that helps them understand the importance of failure and standing up to achieve their dreams. It provides a good perspective on the journey of success. Although there are some typos, readers strongly recommend this masterpiece to those who are afraid of taking risks and making a positive change in their lives. Maxwell's teachings in this book will enrich your life.

    What did you think?

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    • 3/5
      Don't get me wrong. Maxwell's book contains a wealth of helpful information. But the fact is, very little of the material was new to me. That's probably because I've read dozens of books that focus on achieving success and coping with setbacks. "Failing Forward" served as more of a reminder about some of the lynchpins of success. The biggest takeaway, of course, involves the reality that success hinges more on how we play our proverbial cards and less about the cards we're dealt. The book includes dozens of enlightening anecdotes that reinforce Maxwell's themes -- a few too many anecdotes for my liking. My recommendation: if you've only read a few books that focus on success strategies, this tome will be insightful.
    • 3/5
      I believe it was Edison that was asked after 1000 failed attempts to make a working light bulb if he was discouraged. His response - (paraphrase) "no, I now know 1000 ways that it wont work". It is a good book for keeping your head up and learning from your mistakes. Life is often more about how we respond to what happens then what actually happens. Filled with good stories of "overcomers" from all walks of life.
    • 4/5
      Some of my favorite quotes:
      “People are training for success when they should be training for failure. Failure is far more common than success; poverty is more prevalent than wealth; and disappointment more normal than arrival.” J. Wallace Hamilton
      “Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.“ Thomas A. Edison
      To achieve your dreams, you must embrace adversity and make failure a part of your life. If you are not failing, you are probably not moving forward.
      “Don't let your learning lead to knowledge. Let your learning lead to action.” Jim Rohn
      “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.” Benjamin Franklin
      “Highly successful leaders ignore conventional wisdom and take chances. Their stories inevitably include a defining moment or key decision when they took a significant risk and thereby experienced a breakthrough.” Larry Osborne
    • 5/5
      Outstanding book on overcoming adversity. A must read.
    • 5/5
      This book Change my perspective thus changing my life. Failure is my friend!!!!
    • 5/5
      Worthy book but there are a lot of typos. Anyway I strongly recommend this masterpiece to those who are afraid of doing something new and great in their life.
    • 5/5
      Read this book slowly and carefully as it is more of an exercise book! Master each concept and reread as needed. I highly recommend this book to any and all but especially to those entrepreneurs bold enough to brave the high seas of running a business! Overall 5/5
    • 5/5
      I liked so much this book. It helped me to deeply understand to achieve my dreams I need to go through a lot of failing and I need to stand up over and over again to fight more.
    • 5/5
      Showing the good and bad side of success. Giving you a good perspective on the journey
    • 5/5
      Awesome book, I really needed it,and it really help, I wish everyone could read this book!
    • 4/5
      Awesome
    • 5/5
      Any of Maxwell's teachings will enrichen your life.

    Book preview

    Failing Forward - John C. Maxwell

    Preface

    Becoming a REAL Success

    As I speak around the country, people often ask me why I write books. I’ve been asked that question so many times that I want to give you the answer before you begin reading the first chapter of Failing Forward.

    I have dedicated my life to adding value to people. It’s the reason I teach conferences, record lessons on cassette, create training videos, and write books. It’s the reason I lead my organization, The INJOY Group. I want to see people achieve. I want to see each person I meet become a REAL success.

    I believe that to succeed, a person needs only four things. You can remember them by thinking of the word REAL.

    Relationships: The greatest skill needed for success is the ability to get along with other people. It impacts every aspect of a person’s life. Your relationships make you or they break you.

    Equipping: One of the most significant lessons I’ve learned is that those closest to you determine the level of your success. If your dreams are great, you achieve them only with a team.

    Attitude: People’s attitudes determine how they approach life day to day. Your attitude, more than your aptitude, will determine your altitude.

    Leadership: Everything rises and falls on leadership. If you desire to lift the lid on your personal effectiveness, the only way to do it is to increase your leadership skills.

    If you pick up any one of my books, you can be sure that it seeks to add value in one of these four areas. I’ve written this particular book to change your attitude about failure. Read it, absorb it, and allow it to help you turn your mistakes into stepping-stones for success. My desire is that Failing Forward will add value to your life.

    1

    What’s the Main Difference Between

    People Who Achieve and People Who Are Average?

    We are all failures—at least, all the best of us are.

    —J. M. BARRIE

    What makes achievers excel? Why do some people skyrocket while others plummet? You know what I’m talking about. You can call it luck, blessing, or the Midas touch—call it whatever you want. But the truth is that some people just seem to achieve incredible things in spite of tremendous difficulties: They finish in the top 5 percent in nationwide sales for their company after losing key accounts. They find ingenious ways to increase profits for their department in the face of budget cuts. They earn a graduate degree while raising two children as a single parent. They discover awesome business opportunities while colleagues don’t see any at all. Or they recruit winner after winner into their organization despite what looks like an anemic labor pool. It doesn’t matter what kind of work they do. Wherever they are, they just seem to make things happen.

    Certainly all people like to think of themselves as above average. But achievers seem to leave average in the dust—so far behind them that ordinary seems a distant memory.

    WHAT’S THE ROOT OF ACHIEVEMENT?

    What makes the difference? Why do some people achieve so much? Is it . . .

    • Family background? Having a good family growing up is something to be grateful for, but it’s not a reliable indicator of achievement. High percentages of successful people come from broken homes.

    • Wealth? No, some of the greatest achievers come from households of average to below-average means. Wealth is no indicator of high achievement, and poverty is no guarantee of low achievement.

    • Opportunity? You know, opportunity is a peculiar thing. Two people with similar gifts, talents, and resources can look at a situation, and one person will see tremendous opportunity while the other sees nothing. Opportunity is in the eye of the beholder.

    • High morals? I wish that were the key, but it’s not. I’ve known people with high integrity who achieve little. And I’ve known scoundrels who are high producers. Haven’t you?

    • The absence of hardship? For every achiever who has avoided tragedy, there’s a Helen Keller who overcame extreme disabilities or a Viktor Frankl who survived absolute horrors. So that’s not it either.

    No, none of these things are the key. When it comes right down to it, I know of only one factor that separates those who consistently shine from those who don’t: The difference between average people and achieving people is their perception of and response to failure. Nothing else has the same kind of impact on people’s ability to achieve and to accomplish whatever their minds and hearts desire.

    WHAT YOU NEVER LEARNED IN SCHOOL

    Soccer player Kyle Rote Jr. remarked, There is no doubt in my mind that there are many ways to be a winner, but there is really only one way to be a loser and that is to fail and not look beyond the failure. How people see failure and deal with it—whether they possess the ability to look beyond it and keep achieving—impacts every aspect of their lives. Yet that ability seems difficult to acquire. Most people don’t know where to start looking to get it.

    There is no doubt in my mind that there are many ways to be a winner, but there is really only one way to be a loser and that is to fail and not look beyond the failure.

    —KYLE ROTE JR.

    Even positive people have a tough time learning how to see failure positively. For example, I’m known to be a very positive person. (My book The Winning Attitude has been in print for more than fifteen years.) But I haven’t always been good at failing forward. I wasn’t properly prepared for it. It’s certainly not something they tried to teach me in school. And kids today don’t get it there either. In fact, the school environment often reinforces people’s worst feelings and expectations about failure.

    Take a look at some of my previous attitudes toward failure, and see if your experience was similar:

    1. I feared failure. An experience I had in college, along with my response to it, is typical of what many students encounter. On the first day of class when I was a freshman, the professor walked into my history of civilization class and boldly declared, Half of you in this room will not pass this class.

    What was my first response? Fear! Up to that time, I had never failed a class. And I did not want to start failing all of a sudden. So the first question I asked myself was, What does the professor want? School became a game that I wanted to win.

    I recall that I once memorized eighty-three dates for a test in that class because my teacher believed that if you could cite the dates, you had mastered the material. I got an A on the test, but three days later, I had forgotten all of the information. I managed to avoid the failure I had feared, but I had not really accomplished anything.

    2. I misunderstood failure. What is failure? As a child, I thought it was a percentage. Sixty-nine and lower meant failure. Seventy and above signified success. That thinking didn’t help me. Failure isn’t a percentage or a test. It’s not a single event. It’s a process.

    3. I was unprepared for failure. When I graduated from college with my bachelor’s degree, I finished in the top 5 percent of my class. It didn’t mean a thing. I had played the school game successfully, and I had absorbed a lot of information. But I wasn’t at all prepared for what was ahead of me.

    I found that out in my first job. As the pastor in a small rural church, I worked very hard that first year. I did everything the people might expect of me and then some. But to be honest, I was as concerned about getting everyone to like me as I was with helping people.

    In the type of church I led, each year the people voted to decide whether to allow the leader to keep his job. And many of the leaders I knew over the years loved to brag about the unanimous affirming votes they received from their people. My expectations were high as I prepared to receive my first unanimous vote. Imagine my surprise when the votes came back 31 yeses, 1 no, and 1 abstention. I was devastated.

    After I went home that night, I called my father, who was a veteran pastor, former district superintendent in the denomination, and college president.

    Dad, I lamented, I can’t believe it. I worked so hard for those people. I’ve done everything I can. I was at the point of tears. Somebody actually voted against me and wanted me to leave the church! And an abstention is as good as a no. Should I leave and go to another church?

    To my shock, I heard laughter on the other end of the phone.

    No, son, stay there, my dad said as he chuckled. That’s probably the best vote you’ll ever receive.

    A NEW COURSE

    At that moment I realized what an unrealistic view I had of success and failure. If anything, my college experience had reinforced the wrong notions I had about failure. And as I’ve helped leaders to grow and develop through the years, I’ve seen that most people are in the same boat.

    In Leadership Magazine, J. Wallace Hamilton states, The increase of suicides, alcoholics, and even some forms of nervous breakdowns is evidence that many people are training for success when they should be training for failure. Failure is far more common than success; poverty is more prevalent than wealth; and disappointment more normal than arrival.

    People are training for success when they should be training for failure. Failure is far more common than success; poverty is more prevalent than wealth; and disappointment more normal than arrival.

    —J. WALLACE HAMILTON

    Training for failure! That is a great concept, and it’s the idea that prompted me to write this book. Right now you are getting the chance to sign up with me for a class you were never offered in school. I want to help you train for failure. I want you to learn how to confidently look the prospect of failure in the eye and move forward anyway. Because in life, the question is not if you will have problems, but how you are going to deal with your problems. Are you going to fail forward or backward?

    PUTTING A NEW FACE ON OBSTACLES

    When I think of people who were able to look trouble in the eye and forge ahead, one of the first who comes to mind is Mary Kay Ash. She has built quite an organization. During the last four or five years, I’ve had many opportunities to speak to the people in her cosmetics company about leadership. In fact, as I travel around the country doing conferences and seminars, it seems that no matter where I speak, there are always at least a dozen Mary Kay consultants in attendance.

    I admire Mary Kay. She overcame a lot of obstacles in her career, and she never let failure get the better of her. Mary Kay’s first career was in direct sales, and she was quite successful. But she also found that it was difficult for a woman to progress in the corporate world, especially in the 1950s and early 1960s—even after twenty-five years of success. She says,

    I had worked my way up to being a member of the board of the company I was with only to find that, even though our sales force was made up entirely of women, governed by an all male board, my opinions were of no value. I constantly heard, Mary Kay, you are thinking like a woman again! I felt rejection in the worst form. So I decided to retire.¹

    Her retirement didn’t last long. By the time a month passed, she was stir-crazy. She was ready to start her own business. If she was going to encounter obstacles, they would be there only because she brought them on herself. She decided on a cosmetics business that would give every woman who worked in it unlimited opportunities. She purchased the formulas to the best beauty products she’d ever found, worked up a marketing plan, and prepared to set up a corporation.

    TROUBLE!

    It didn’t take long for her to hit her first obstacle. When she visited her attorney to make legal arrangements for the corporation, he insulted her and predicted her failure. Mary Kay, he said, if you are going to throw away your life savings, why don’t you just go directly to the trash can? It will be so much easier than what you are proposing. Her accountant spoke to her in similar terms.

    Despite their attempts to discourage her, she moved ahead. She sank her $5,000 life savings into her new business—every cent she had. She put her husband in charge of the administrative side of things as she worked feverishly to prepare the products, design the packaging, write the training materials, and recruit consultants. They were making wonderful progress. But then a month before she was to open for business, her husband died of a heart attack right at their kitchen table.

    Most people would never have been able to go on after that. They would have accepted defeat and faded away. But not Mary Kay. She kept going, and on September 13, 1963, she launched her business. Today, the company has more than $1 billion in annual sales, employs 3,500 people, and empowers 500,000 direct-sales consultants in 29 markets worldwide.² And Mary Kay Ash has received just about every award an entrepreneur could dream of. Despite adverse circumstances, obstacles, and hardships, she failed forward.

    THE IMPOSSIBLE QUESTION

    When I was growing up, one of the questions I used to hear from motivational speakers was this: If the possibility of failure were erased, what would you attempt to achieve?

    If your perception of and response to failure were changed, what would you attempt to achieve?

    That seemed to me to be an intriguing question. At the time it prompted me to look ahead to life’s possibilities. But then one day I realized that it was really a bad question. Why? Because it takes a person’s thinking down the wrong track. There is no achievement without failure. To even imply that it might be possible gives people the wrong impression. So here’s a better question: If your perception of and response to failure were changed, what would you attempt to achieve?

    I don’t know what obstacles you are facing in your life right now. But whatever they are doesn’t matter. What does matter is that your life can change if you’re willing to look at failure differently. You have the potential to overcome any problems, mistakes, or misfortunes. All you have to do is learn to fail forward. If you are ready to do that, turn the page and let’s go!

    Your First Step to Failing Forward:

    Realize There Is One Major Difference Between Average People and Achieving People

    Look at the way any achiever approaches negative experiences, and you can learn a lot about how to fail forward. Read through these two lists, and determine which one describes your approach to failure:

    Think about a recent setback you experienced. How did you respond? No matter how difficult your problems were, the key to overcoming them doesn’t lie in changing your circumstances. It’s in changing yourself. That in itself is a process, and it begins with a desire to be teachable. If you’re willing to do that, then you’ll be able to handle failure. From this moment on, make a commitment to do whatever it takes to fail forward.

    Step to Failing Forward:

    1. Realize there is one major difference between average people and achieving people.

    Redefining Failure and Success

    2

    Get a New Definition of Failure and Success

    The difference between greatness and mediocrity is often how an individual views a mistake.

    —NELSON BOSWELL

    On August 6, 1999, a major-league baseball player stepped up to home plate in Montreal and made another out—the 5,113th of his professional career. That’s a lot of trips to the batter’s box without a hit! If a player made all of those outs consecutively, and he averaged four at bats per game, he would play eight seasons (1,278 games straight) without ever reaching first base!

    Was the player discouraged that night? No. Did he think he had failed himself or his team? No. You see, earlier in the same game, in his first plate appearance, that player had reached a milestone that only twenty-one other people in the history of baseball have ever achieved. He had made his 3,000th hit. That player was Tony Gwynn of the San Diego Padres.

    During that game, Tony got on base with hits four times in five tries. But

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