Does life ever leave you feeling like you are continually showing up one minute late for the party? Are you the kid walking up to the door on Halloween just as the porch light goes dark and you hear that they are out of candy? Ever hear your co-workers talk about the ‘good old days’ and have them tell you that ‘you should have been here then’? Does it seem that you are just destined to be one step behind your chance to get the success that you really want, and have worked hard to deserve? If so, then this is for you.
no more FAILURE
Before we talk about true success, we must first take a hard look at failure. What does it mean to you to fail? How do you define failure? And more importantly, how does that definition define your expectation for success? I am going to ask you to do something today that may be hard for you; remove failure from your vocabulary. At least remove it as you know it before reading this article. Among other options, failure is defined as the ‘lack of success’. We work through our lives viewing success and failure as an ‘either-or’ situation. How often have you missed a goal and thought that the failure you have felt means that you will not have success? Could it not be that this particular ‘failure’ was a stepping stone to set you up for bigger success further down the road?
To that end, if you can agree that you are not done with the fight, then you you have not truly failed until you are at the point that you give up. Furthermore, if failure is simply the lack of success, then all that is needed to remedy this situation is to add more success to the recipe that makes up your life. So today marks the day that you redefine failure, and more importantly, it is the day that you stop letting failure define you!
“Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently”
Henry Ford
With your new definition in mind, can you now look back on what you have viewed as your failures (up to this point) and see them as necessary steps for success to come?
Let’s agree that we need to remove failure as an option. In the big picture, there is no room for failure. You see, to fail is the ultimate end of not achieving your desired outcome. To reach that point you will have had to completely stop trying so until you give up, you have not failed, just learned as Thomas Edison so eloquently stated.
“I have not failed 10,000 times. I have not failed once. I have succeeded in proving that those 10,000 ways will not work. When I have eliminated the ways that will not work, I will find the way that will work.”
Thomas Edison
late life stops for THE SUCCESS BUS
Here are just a few examples that you may not have been aware did not achieve success until late in life. On those days (like today for me) when you wonder where you are at on your road map and question if you have missed all the chances to catch that bus, then think about these success stories and stay the course.
- Many people are aware of Colonel Harland Sanders as the southern gentlemen on the iconic KFC bucket. But less are aware that he had a long chain of unsuccessful careers before a broke Colonel Sanders started franchising Kentucky Fried Chicken in his sixties.
- At the age of 53 Ray Kroc partnered with the McDonald brothers to take their fast burger production to a national scale. He then spent the next twenty years taking McDonald’s to be the top fast food chain in the country.
- Not until she was 50, would Julia Child begin to host her television program, ‘The French Chef’. Bringing here love of French cuisine to America and she would share this passion for the next several decades.
- While we may picture Laura Ingalls Wilder as a little girl on the prairie, though she did not start writing until late in life. She was 65 when here first book was published and she would continue to write for the next eleven years.
- You may have Duncan Hines cake mixes in your pantry, but did you know that he was a food critic who published his first food and hotel guide at the age of 55. Years later at the age of 73 he licensed the right to use his name on cake mixes.
the road to success is A LONG JOURNEY
You may think that the point of the story of these and many others like them is that success happened for them later in life. But that is just the end result at the end of a much longer journey. With a closer look you will realize that when their success was finally realized, it was a compilation of every step they took and every stop they made along the way. Every would-be failure, every detour, every unplanned turn, all came together to create their success. Each of these detours, road blocks and u-turns created the people as they were at the time of their resulting success and the way we know and remember them today. You could say that they are successful because of their set backs rather than in spite of them.
now go and CATCH YOUR BUS
So now it is your turn! What disappointments are lingering in your past? Which detours and roadblocks have had you feeling held back from your goals? Turn those into learning moments and value the experience you now have from going through them. Maybe you missed one stop on the route, but if you keep moving along, another stop is surely not far away and you too can hop on that bus!
Thank you for detouring from your day to continue on this journey with me. Please like and share with your network so they too can redefine how they view failure. I would be interested to hear whose seemingly late life success story has inspired you in the comments section below.
Andy Vargo is a motivational speaker, life coach and comedian who challenges you to ‘Own Your Awkward’. He is the author of the Awkward Journal series, host of the podcast, Own Your Awkward, and shares thoughts and ideas in his blog and video series available at awkwardcareer.com.
References for this post: 7 Late Life Success Stories (History.com) and 14 Inspiring People Who Found Crazy Success Later in Life (Inc.com)
Originally published on LinkedIn