The secret to success

The so-called ‘secret’ to success is really no secret at all! It’s simply getting back up when life has knocked you down and taking with you into the future the lessons you have learned. In talking about heroes such as Samson and David, the Bible says they ‘were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight.’ (Hebrews 11:34 ESV) Notice these people weren’t always strong, but they became strong. They didn’t win every battle, but they went on to win the ones that mattered.

In 1928, a 33-year-old American named Paul Galvin found himself staring at failure… again. By this point, he had failed twice in industry, his competitors having forced him to fold up his latest venture in the storage-battery business. Convinced, however, that he had a remarkable idea, Galvin attended the auction of his own business. And with the $750 he had managed to raise; he bought back the battery eliminator portion of the inventory. With it, he built a new company, one in which he succeeded, one from which he eventually retired, and one which became a household word: Motorola. You have probably heard of it.

Business innovator Roger von Oech said: ‘Remember the two benefits of failure. First, if you do fail, you learn what doesn’t work; and second, the failure gives you the opportunity to try a new approach… Most people think of success and failure as opposites, but they both are products of the same process.’ Failure is delay, not defeat. We all make mistakes, especially those who act. It’s only when you become unwilling to risk failure that you stop learning, you stop growing, and you stop succeeding.