Failure Only Happens If You Let It

It is only when you believe that you have failed that it truly occurs. If you refuse to accept the 'failed' outcome and resolve to be relentless and keep working until you achieve your goal, then that failure was nothing more than a temporary setback – an opportunity to reinvent your approach. 

Nothing meaningful has ever been accomplished without some degree of complication. Those who have less than the necessary resolve will think of these moments as huge failures that stop them in their tracks. The perception of failure, which should have been temporary, was locked in as a permanent reality because they didn’t have the conviction to push through and find another way.

You have the power to rewrite the story. It’s a simple vernacular shift that creates a new mindset:

Failure is a challenge you haven’t conquered yet.

It’s not impossible if you find a way to make it possible.

It’s not that you don’t have what it takes. Maybe today just wasn’t the day.

Change your mindset. Understand that 'failure' is temporary and can be overcome. If you believe you failed, you’re absolutely right. Success is achievable when you flip the script.

Scott Gelber is president of Merkley+Partners