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Climbing Failure



I recently attended a business coaching conference featuring Dave Ramsey. He’s a great presenter with many impressive insights, but one in particular really stuck out to me:  “Success is standing on a pile of failures, not lying underneath them.”

Simple quote but the message is profound. Failure is inevitable in this life. There is no getting around it. We can try to avoid it, shirk away in fear, quit and lie down when we face it. That is when it ends up on top of us. Or we can accept and even seek failure. Not that we fail purposely, but we must push our own limits until we fail. Then we can adjust and adapt to push again, a little harder and a little smarter than before, climbing on top of the failure instead of being crushed by it.

Failure helps us hone our skills, to stretch and grow. The losses give us greater appreciation for the wins. Failure creates perspective. Great accomplishments happen because of failures, not in spite of them.

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