I will explain what failure is, how failure affects the average person, the fundamental deficiency which causes people to fail and the formula which is GUARANTEED to ensure that you NEVER fail at anything again. The best part is that it only takes five minutes, or whatever time you spend reading this page. If you're a speed reader you might complete it in one minute. Imagine not failing at anything again in the next minute.

Let's go...

Many people define failure as any result which differs from any intended or desired result. A person starts a business intending to experience 10% growth in two years. That business closes down in six months and the person records this as a failure. A student intends to get over 90% on an exam and gets 60%, or below 50%. As both are below the intended result the student records this as a failure.

A nutritionist once told me that if three out of seven on a test is a fail, anyone who exercises less than four days a week is bound to fail at any weight loss attempts. Of course, I don't agree with her, but the point is we formulate various methods of qualifying failure.

Regardless of any formula for qualifying failure, it can instill fear in most people and can also discourage them. Has a fear of failure ever prevented you from applying to a particular school, applying for a particular job, pursuing a particular career, starting a business or pursuing a particular relationship?

List two things that you've failed at: (don't ACTUALLY write anything, just imagine the items being written superficially)

a) ____________________

b) ____________________

Are you done?

Good.

Now, I may as well participate since I'm putting you through this.

Here are two things that I've failed at:

a) NOTHING

b) NOTHING

The word NOTHING appears on every space on my list, because I HAVE NEVER FAILED AT ANYTHING.

If you found two things to put on your list, keep reading.

Here's the reason why you failed at these things, and anything else that you've failed at:

People fail at things because they have POOR VOCABULARY. It's actually not your fault, your teachers are to blame. The mere fact that you have the word failure as part of your vocabulary, and you associate it with results which differ from the results you intended, indicates that you have POOR VOCABULARY.

There is no such thing as failure, what exists and takes place is ACTIVE LEARNING, not failure.

You too have never failed at anything, but you've learnt a great deal. The problem was that your vocabulary was poor, so some of your learning was wrongly categorized as FAILURE. It's not FAILURE, its something you LEARNED. Go back to your list. The two things you listed were not things you failed at, they were things you either LEARNED how to do in their entirety, or LEARNED how to undertake partially. You also LEARNED what course of action WILL NOT bring forth the results that you want.

Replace the word failed with LEARNED and there you have it. You no longer have poor vocabulary and will never fail at anything again.

I may be wrong about this, but I KNOW I'M RIGHT.

When I did the Bar, we were not just given information and expected to internalize it. We were broken into small groups and spent almost everyday going through legal simulations such as negotiations, client conferences or presenting arguments in a mock court. At the end of every session, feedback was received from fellow students as well as tutors. Mistakes were pointed out and everyone got much better as time went by. By making mistakes and acknowledging them, we LEARNED.

Were we FAILING everyday? Of course not, we were LEARNING everyday.

Any result that is different from or less fruitful than the result you intended is not failure, but LEARNING.

The first day of driving school will be a frustrating experience. After two weeks, you will make marked progress. If you have poor vocabulary, you will fail on the first day, run away and never continue. By now you no longer have poor vocabulary, so on the first day of driving school you will LEARN something about driving and build on your knowledge until you become an independent driver.

Pick up any musical instrument that you do not know how to play and try to play it. Go ahead and make a mess. If you continue, after one week you'll be capable of playing some sort of tune and by two months in, you would have made real progress. Did you fail on the first day? No, you LEARNED.

Here's an example that everyone can relate to. I've done this in the Caribbean, Canada and England (so everyone can relate). If you go to sleep with a window opened above your head, what happens? You wake up with a 'scratchy' sore throat and a slight cold. If you've done this before, did you FAIL to go to sleep properly? Absurd. Rather, you learned that an open window at night can cause a draft.

This applies to everything else. If it's an exam and the results differ from those intended, then you LEARN to increase your study time, control your nerves, sharpen your understanding of the concepts or focus your study more specifically.

The person who decides to start a business that closes down in six months has not failed. That person has learned specific business information which will provide an automatic advantage over someone else who embarks upon a business venture for the first time.