That’s kind of confusing, but it’s true about failure. If you don’t try, there’s no way you can fail, but you fail anyway if you don’t try.

Failures are not people who try to do something and don’t succeed; failures are those who keep stalling and don’t make a beginning.

Those that don’t try are worse off, as they have lost the opportunity to learn. From experience, we know that every failure is a stepping stone and success comes from fixing mistakes rather not making them at all.

‘To try and fail is at least to learn; to fail to try is to suffer the inestimable loss of what might have been.’ ~ Chester Barnard

The Psychology of Failure 

We have heard it a thousand times in meetings, political speeches, at conferences and corporate feel-good events: “Failure is not an option.” Rah-rah!

It’s a lie. Don’t believe a word of it. Failure is always an option. In fact, statistically speaking, it is the most likely option. ~ Olivier Blanchard via thebrandbuilder.wordpress.com

We consider “failing” to be our worst enemy. As soon as things start going wrong, we enter into a defensive state, trying to do what it takes to save face. These are normal reactions – the reaction of denial.

We deny because not many of us like admitting to the world that we’ve made a mistake and proceed to put it right. Another trait is to try to erase what has happened, and causing more damage in the process. A supreme example to this mentality of undoing the wrong is the gambler. A gambler loses and then tries to undo the loss by continuing to gamble and by placing riskier bets, hoping to get it all back. But it doesn’t work that way and that’s the reason gambling is considered a disease that tricks the mind.

Failing From Doing  

Many entrepreneurs will fail many times before they come up with a business idea that will make them their millions. Each time you fail you can learn from your mistakes and find new opportunities. ~  Ivica Horkovicova via chalksy.com

Internet marketers on the other hand can learn a lot even when they fail. They learn not to make that mistake again and they find better routes to reach the same goal.  They can only hope to achieve success through learning from their failures.

In a complex marketing arena, marketers must use an experimental approach to succeed.  If you’re using Google Adwords, there’s a lot of trial and error involved, and not many can boast of getting it right the first time around. They lose money through the trials as they have no way of predicting whether their “great ad” will sink or swim.

If you’ve missed the mark, you have to be willing to let go of an idea. If a niche you’ve chosen is the wrong one, be prepared to expose yourself to lots of different ideas and approaches.

This is the kind of failure that you learn from and this is the kind you should be prepared to embrace, as this eventually leads to success.

Failing From Not Initiating 

 ~ Dean Rieck via Copyblogger.com

What is worse than failing to achieve is to fail from not having tried at all! Many people fail because they don’t even try. They may either be too scared to try or they may harbor negative thoughts of failing even before they begin.

The most significant impediment in the part of success is, without doubt, the dread of failure, and especially, how the naysayers view failure.  Many look at failure as a penalty that awaits them at the end of their journey or as a dream-sucking monster that sucks in all dreams, destroying any hope for the future.

Most people venture online with the dream of “being their own boss.” But for many, their dreams remain just that – dreams. The demoralizing gauntlet they have to run to realize success can scare them away.

One of the major reasons for not trying are disheartening influences or skepticism from people who have tried and failed.  Comments such as, “there’s no money in affiliate marketing,” “network marketing is dead,” “article marketing no longer works,” “it’s not possible to make money online,” can be very discouraging.

They come from people who have more fear of failure than they have passion for success.

They don’t take that all essential first step because they don’t say, “I may fail,” but they say “I may become a failure.”  And this feeling destroys any hope for the future.

William Shakespeare talked about self-defeatism, “Our doubts are traitors and make us lose the good we oft might win, by fearing to attempt.”

Defuse The Impact Of Failure  

“If you don’t start, you can’t fail.” It sounds ridiculous when you say it that way. But of course, it is ridiculous. It’s (quite possibly) the reason you’re stalling. On the other hand, there’s no doubt that, “If you don’t start, you will fail.” Not starting and failing lead to precisely the same outcome, with different names. ~ Seth Godin via Sethgodin.typepad.com

To try and fail is at least an opportunity to learn, rather than to fail without trying.  The best way to defuse the impact of failure in your mind is to look at it as something that can happen at the beginning of the path to success, not the end.  When you consider it an inevitable door to cross before reaching success, you will be able to accept it better.

In fact, you may embrace failure with grace if you think that it is a signal that tells you that you’re not on the right path to success and not as a signal that success cannot be achieved. Imagine yourself walking on a path to reach your destination. You’ve just started and someone tells you that you’re on the wrong path and shows you the right path.  Wouldn’t you leave this path and take the other one? Isn’t it better that someone shows you the right path at the very beginning, rather than you wasting time going all the way only to find out you wasted all that time?

A Conclusion On Failure

We all look up to successful people like Bill Gates, Oprah Winfrey and so many others like them. These people struggled in their fields, but they had to face abysmal failures before they could achieve success.  The beauty of such individuals is that their initial failures did not dissuade them from their dreams, instead, they cleared the path and added the fire to achieve success.

Great lessons can be learned from them and hundreds of online marketers who have made huge successes of themselves. All you have to believe in is that it is better to try and fail than to fail without trying.

What have you learnt from a past failure?