Failure

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While leaders often excel in steering their organizations toward success, they must engage in continuous self-reflection to identify and address their leadership weaknesses.

In this article, Work It DAILY experts from Vistage, renowned for their expertise in executive coaching and leadership development, share invaluable insights on recognizing and addressing leadership weaknesses. Read on to tap into the collective wisdom of these experts, gaining practical tips and actionable strategies to enhance your leadership acumen.

Kirsten Yurich

I have a â3-Mâ policy when it comes to leadership weaknesses. And it doesnât involve Post-it notes! The three Ms are mindset, mentoring, and measurement.

Armed with these three Ms, a leader will spot and correct their biggest weaknesses!

The first "M" is mindset. A leader who desires to practice leadership at its highest level must cultivate a mindset of humility. We see humility and vulnerability a lot these days and for good reason. The leader who understands they are not perfect may lack key skills and knowledge in certain situations, or is just downright fallible... Is a leader people are willing to follow. This leader will receive honest feedback from those around them. And will engender positive and authentic relationships with key team members.

The second "M" is mentoring. Any person who wants to become a leader or a better leader needs to spend time with people who are further down the path than they are. This could be mentoring or coaching or even a peer group. Placing yourself in a position to get advice, challenge, encouragement, and perspective will go a long way toward finding and closing those performance gaps.

The third and final "M" is measurement. Measurement takes the form of formal or informal and valid instruments designed to give you objective feedback about your skills, preferences, impact, and performance. In this realm, we have to be very careful consumers. There are tools out there that have excellent face validity and no substance. However, I firmly believe that if we want to change something we have to measure it.

Armed with the "3-M" strategy, any leader can improve!

Kirsten Yurich is a former CEO and current Vistage Chair. As a clinician, professor, author, and executive, she leverages this unique blend and creates learning environments for executives to become better leaders, spouses, and parents.

Mark Fackler

Leader talks about workplace relationships during a work meeting

Identifying weaknesses in yourself, as a CEO, is critically important for growing your company. You are the bottleneck. Since your weaknesses affect the entire company, dealing with them, however hard, is a great return on investment.

Depending on your level of self-awareness, identifying some of your weaknesses can be easy, but even the most self-aware individuals need to look to others for help.

But as a CEO, getting honest feedback is problematic. People defer to you. Talking truth to power is difficult. Employees often withhold the feedback that is the most important for you to hear.

Creating the right culture will make getting feedback on weaknesses easier. You need to create a culture where feedback is the norm and not just positive feedback. You need to model for your staff the right way to provide feedback, both positive and negative. Feedback should be specific and timely, and most importantly, negative feedback should be non-judgmental.

There is a saying, âPraise in public, criticize in private.â I strongly disagree. If you create a culture where feedback to help someone is only done in private, you are missing out on group learning. Failure should be celebrated. Failure talked about publicly will lead to the identification of weaknesses. You canât fix a weakness until it is identified.

Another great source for feedback is a peer group, a peer group without competitors and vendor relationships. When I joined such a group, a Vistage CEO group, it took just a few months for my fellow CEOs to see one of my weaknesses. They saw me avoiding a tough conversation that I needed to have with a key executive. When month after month they offered advice that I did not take, they realized it was not a lack of knowledge, but a weakness that I needed to confront. Because they were my peers, there was no deferential treatment. There was no judgment, just a desire to help me.

Find your weaknesses. Fix your weaknesses. Donât just count on self-discovery. Create a company culture where non-judgmental feedback is the norm. Join a peer group. Be relentless. Never stop improving.

Mark Fackler is a retired CEO and currently leads the Vistage CEO group that he was a member of from 1991 to 2002. He is passionate about creating great ROI for his member CEOs.

Mike Thorne

Leader talks to his team members during a work meeting

There are three critical areas for CEOs to pay attention to spot leadership âweaknesses.â

The first is âunstructuredâ self-reflection/assessment. Find some quiet time and think about the things that are always on your mind that you avoid dealing with.

The second is structured. Seek either executive coaching or even behavior therapy. We often need a sounding board to work through whatever we are going through.

The third, and last, is to look at metrics for insights. Employee turnover, morale, general team dynamics. Look for patterns of issues that crop up and dig into why. Deal with them before they become crises.

Mike Thorne is a former CEO and current Vistage Chair. He leads and facilitates a group of trusted advisor entrepreneurs and a CEO peer group in New Hampshire and Maine.

How have you spotted your biggest leadership weakness? Join the conversation inside Work It DAILY's Elite Program.

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How CEOs Can Spot Their Biggest Leadership …

Most people donât properly prepare for job interviews. As a result, they usually make one of these two common mistakes in their job interviews, and it costs them the job.

You might think you can get away with doing minimal interview prep in your job search, but hiring managers can tell if you haven't done your research and are struggling to answer questions.

If you're not doing enough interview prep in your job search, you've probably run into one of these two problems during your job interviews...

Lack Of Interview Prep = Saying Too Much Or Too Little

In job interviews, people often make two major mistakes related to the Goldilocks principle: either they provide too little information and clam up or they talk excessively, sounding self-absorbed. To succeed, it's crucial to strike the right balance by following the "Experience + Learn = Grow" approach, which ensures well-structured answers.

Itâs very important that you structure your interview answers in a logical format so that you give hiring managers the right amount of information. Behavioral interview questions require more than a simple "yes" or "no" answer. By following the "Experience + Learn = Grow" model for answering behavioral interview questions, you'll effectively answer any question the hiring manager throws your way.

This takes practice, though. And practice is a huge part of proper interview prep. So, do your research on the company, review your resume, and practice your interview answers in a mock interview with a trusted friend or colleague. You'll never fail a job interview by talking too much or too little again.

Need more help with your job search?

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2 Ways People Fail In Job Interviews

You polished your resume and sent it to the right person, along with a stellar cover letter. You got a call. You aced the interview. You were brought back inâtwice! You sent thank-you notes after each interview, to each interviewer. Your follow-up was polite and appropriate. You were told you were a finalist. The HR person thought it was looking good for you...yet they gave the job to someone else.

After all that effort and waiting and wondering. After joking with the receptionist about being a âregular" in the lobby. After establishing what seemed like a genuine rapport with the executive in charge of the department. After what the HR person said about it looking good...

Yes, it's a disappointment. But in spite of what you might think, all is not lost. What can you do to maximize your chances of having some good come out of this seeming loss?

Here are three ways you should react to a particularly disappointing job rejection:

Be Gracious

Yes, you were obviously the best candidate, at least as far as you could tell. And maybe some of the people on the other side of the interview desk thought so too. But a decision was made, no matter how difficult. And it's time to touch base one more time with a thank-you note to all involved for their time and consideration.

Be A Resource If You Can

Professional man gets rejected from a job

If there's some topic that was discussed and a piece of information that the interviewer wished they had, track it down. If the interviewer wanted to connect with someone you know, offer to make the introduction. There's not always an opportunity like this, but if there is, take advantage of it.

By doing this, you're not only being professional about the rejection, but it's also an opening to add the hiring manager to your professional network. Consider connecting with this person on LinkedIn down the line.

As they say, "Out of sight, out of mind," so try to stay on the hiring manager's radar.

Keep The Door Open

Young woman and HR manager discuss the next steps after she is rejected from a job she applied to

Even though you didn't get the job, it's important to reiterate your respect and admiration for the company and the fact that you would like to work there. It's okay to say, "If another position comes upâor if the candidate you hired doesn't work outâI would still love the opportunity to join the team over there."

A sentence like this can cement you in their minds as the backup or as the first person to be called when something else becomes available.

HR officials will sometimes forward resumes of promising candidates to colleagues at other companies for their open positions. Getting the original job is just one good outcome of the job interviewing process. Consider a "near miss" at getting hired one more step in building your reputation for overall career success.

Need more help with your job search?

Become a member to learn how to land a job and UNLEASH your true potential to get what you want from work!

This article was originally published at an earlier date.

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3 Ways Professionals Should Respond To Job …

Although we shoot for perfection and success at work, we all experience failure at some point in our careers. Failure can be difficult to handle in a professional setting. Executives and other leaders in the workplaceâour mentors, the ones we look up to at workâhave all failed. Not only that, but they've recovered from failure and found success in the process.

We recently asked our successful executives how they recover from a failure at work.

Here are their responses...

Lisa Perry, Global Marketing Executive

When I worked at The Disney Channel, one of my jobs was to proof ads. I was the last sign-off before the ad went to press. It was an exciting time as we launched a new campaign in support of a new series. It was quickly dampened when I learned that the ad, which had gone live that morning, had a glaring error Iâd missed.

The most forward-thinking companies embrace risk-taking and the possibility of failure. What's wonderful about failure is the learning you receive from it. You learn substantially more from failures than successes. Failures should push you to bounce back and work harder to achieve your goals, making you stronger. Here are three things you should model as a leader within your organization:

1. Lead by Example: Management should share past examples of company failures, suggest new solutions that might work, and receive ideas from others without judgment.

2. Provide a Solution: While failing is okay, managers need to encourage employees to provide solutions to problems and propose an action plan for the next steps. Managers can then review and provide guidance on how best to proceed.

3. Don't Repeat Failures: The key here is to learn from your mistakes, document the learning, establish a process that ensures these failures won't happen again, and share these learnings throughout the organization.

The best advice I received is that failure is a success if we learn from it.

Lisa Perry helps companies build leadership brands, driving loyal customers & delivering profitability. She does this through a process that builds brands consumers love. Her goal is to help companies develop, monetize, and grow their brands.

Lynn Holland, VP Sales & Business Development

Woman stressed about a failure/mistake on the job

As a lover of the outdoors and living within driving distance of Oregonâs Mt. Hood, I was drawn to skiing. I volunteered as a cross-country instructor for an alpine club, then taught for a ski resort, secretly motivated by free lift tickets so I could get better at skiing downhill. Initially, I was afraid of failure and intimidated so when venturing onto harder runs it was natural to lean into the mountain. Yet I quickly learned that when I leaned out, though counterintuitive, I fell less, and I became a better skier.

As an executive, I see leaning out as risking to attempt something new and being aggressive to grow, learn, and accomplish greater things, knowing that along the way I will probably break some stuff. In my mind, as long as I learn from it and bring future success out of it, it has value.

After I launched my first company, leaning out manifested a failure as I negotiated a supply chain partnership to source products globally vs. just domestically. It represented a huge opportunity for my business, but in doing so, I failed to dig deeply into the relationship, the financial chain of custody, and the quality assurance process with each of the individual factories. As a result, my orders experienced missed lead times and material defects that were costly and embarrassing, and I later learned there was another party between my contractual partner and the factories who failed to perform.

This taught me to take full ownership of every aspect of my business and prompted me to implement a four-point policy that helped me select, negotiate, and manage all future partnerships successfully.

Here are some of my learnings about failing in business, recovering from it, and using it to propel our careers:

The most accomplished and celebrated leaders and entrepreneurs in history failed many times before they were a success.
Always fail while risking to accomplish something great.
Always take full ownership of failure to preserve credibility, integrity, and reputation.
Root out and take from a failure every available ounce of growth and wisdom into the next goal and keep striving.
Read the speech âMan in the Arenaâ by Theodore Roosevelt to remember to tune out the naysayers, haters, and critics who keep us from attaining greatness.

Lynn Holland is a business development executive with 18+ years of experience taking operational, IoT & retail technologies, products, & consumer engagement to market with a focus in petroleum & convenience retail.

Ana Smith, Talent Architect & Global Learning Strategist

When I think about recovering from a failure at work, I always have to ask/think about the context of the culture and psychological safety of the team, the business segment, and the organization where the failure happens.

As leaders or people managers, we play a critical role in how our team members perceive and react to failure when it happens; creating the necessary psychological safety and culture of learning is key to this.

Promoting a growth mindset for our people calibrates how they interpret failure in a completely different way than people with a fixed mindset. Folks with a growth mindset see failure as a signal that they need to put in more effort, try different strategies, or seek feedback and guidance. They use failure as a motivation to improve and grow, rather than as a reason to give up or feel ashamed.

Some examples of how people with a growth mindset view failure include:

Failure is only failure if we fail to learn from it
Failure is an opportunity to enhance our skills and knowledge
Failure is a challenge that pushes us out of our comfort zone

However, having/exercising a growth mindset is not always easy or simple. It requires practice, persistence, and support from your leader/manager.

Bouncing back from failure at work can be hard, but itâs not impossible. There are some steps we can all take to recover from a setback and move forward with confidence.

Some of the steps you/we can take are:

Being honest with your superiors and admitting your mistake
Don't make excuses or blame others for your failure
Find the silver lining (and there's always one!)
Learn from your failure

Using failure as an opportunity to improve your skill set and potentially become a better leader.

These steps can help you bounce back from failure at work and show that you are resilient, adaptable, and committed to your goals.

Ana Smith helps people & organizations achieve their full talent potential by developing and co-creating people strategies and customized solutions, and turning them into impactful outcomes and collaborative relationships, using coaching as the "red thread."

Kathryn Marshburn, Music Program Manager

Businesspeople in a meeting upset about a failure at work

Successful executives get used to failure because it provides so much growth and opportunity to learn. Creating a culture of celebrating failure is important and that starts with humility in the workplace.

While I worked for Spotify, Dawn Ostroff, a C-suite executive at Spotify, would share failures, break them down, and celebrate in our town halls (in front of 3000 employees) where we could learn as a team from the mistakes. I remember seeing the title for her presentation and I was so intrigued and teams across the company were inspired. We took notes on how to not repeat those mistakes, lean into them, and forward progression for new strategies.

When a failure occurs:

Accept it with humility
Gather all the facts
Review how we could improve moving forward
Come to the table with a mindset of failures = possibilities

I believe developing your skills in the practice of losing and accepting is a huge educational opportunity, so your skill set includes being put in uncomfortable positions, so that you can get good at rejection. I believe that people are too addicted to positive reinforcement and we could all grow from learning how not to repeat the failure where the next project benefits from the previous failure.

Kathryn Marshburn has spent 12+ years in the music and gaming industries guiding teams on identifying targeted goals with an agile approach resulting in driving revenue and reducing risk.

Michael Willis, Sports Business Operations Executive

Man on laptop shocked, stressed about a failure at work

No one begins a journey with failure as part of their plan. Caution might lurk, but turning back is not an option.

As executives and leaders, we know that failure is part of success. The real work for leaders begins when you must figure out what works and what doesnât.

The first step is to own the failure. Donât blame anyone or anything else. Take full responsibility for the failure and the action needed to correct it.

Find the fix, and understand what went wrong.

Test the solution from beginning to end to ensure everything works as planned.

Meet with your team to outline what failed. Inform everyone what was done to solve the problem. And share with the team the new protocols going forward.

In summary, everyone on the team must communicate a breakdown or failed system. Leaders canât effectively lead with missing information. Leaders need to lead teams that are invested in the end product.

Michael Willis has 18+ years of experience working with accounting & sports organizations and has managed P&Ls of $10M - $125M+ with budgets of $3M-$50M+. He worked for the NFL for 22 1/2 years, mainly with the game officials working on the financial/accounting side of the business.

John Schembari, Senior Education Executive

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to="" evaluate="" =" site_id=19546645 is_animated_gif=false original_size=\"900x615"]

âI like to conduct after-action reviewsâor AARsâafter failures on the job.

The AAR process is as follows:

What was supposed to happen?
What actually happened?
Why did it happen?
What are we going to do next time?

What I like about the AAR process is that it is not just about identifying a problem but highlighting solutions/next steps which hold me (and others) accountable for change. This works for project-based failures.

When it comes to leadership failures that are often surfaced in 360-degree/other performance reviews, I like to find mentors/resources in that area and discern what is and what is not in my power to address/change.

John Schembari is a current K-12 teacher/school leader academic improvement coach and former school building and district administrator. He loves to draw, travel, swing dance, and read nonfiction.

John Hoffman, Creative Producer

Video production/film team work through a failure

Being a creative producer in the film and live experiential event industry requires handling setbacks, challenges, and adverse conditions. Therefore, the skill of dealing with failure, or redefining it as setbacks on the job, is crucial for success.

To excel as a creative producer, it's essential to understand the primary responsibility of bringing a TV or live event concept to life:

Overseeing every aspect of the project
Generating ideas to collaborate with production partners and artists
Coordinating with all teams involved in all phases of the production process

Maintaining a positive attitude and staying focused on finding solutions is essential, and identifying pitfalls and solving problems is a superpower honed from years of experience. Setbacks can be turned into opportunities for growth and success, but this requires clear communication of expectations to stakeholders and realistic goals.

Instead, by approaching setbacks as opportunities for growth and focusing on finding solutions, creative producers can overcome challenges and succeed in bringing innovative and creative concepts to life.

With experience and agility, you learn to expect the unexpected because failure is not an option for a creative producer.

John Hoffman has 15+ years of leadership experience creating and producing video content, branded entertainment, PR stunts, and experiential and live events. At his core, he's a storyteller who has mastered the creative map and can scale logistical mountains.

How do you recover from a failure at work? Join the conversation inside Work It Daily's Executive Program.

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Executive Spotlight: How To Recover From A …

Is Your Lack Of Confidence Holding Your Job Search Back?

Are you feeling defeated because you've done all you could do to attain a job, but have yet to land one? Examine your internal dialogue. Yes, put down the resume, halt the job search, and join me in this deep-dive exercise of exploring your thoughts...

What are your beliefs about your candidacy? What âvibe" are you transmitting during your phone interview, exuding through your body language, projecting with your attire selection, and reinforcing via your resume and cover letter?

If your lack of confidence is holding you back in your job search, try to think about the following:

Others can sense your lack of self-confidence.

Lack of confidence can be "smelled" a mile away. Negativity, cynicism, and a "poor-me" attitude is not attractive at allâno matter how you try to mask it.

While it may seem too simple and bordering on just "self-help" talk, the beliefs we hold about ourselves are fundamental in our success. The concept of reversing negative internal narrative seems simple; however, actually changing what you are thinking, feeling, and exuding is notâbut it can absolutely be accomplished!

We guarantee that if you have lost the job offer, perhaps even during a second interview, the person who got hired sold their qualifications with more confidence, was more persuasiveness in promoting their value, and closed the deal (job) by assertively reassuring the employer that they were the best choice!

So, what are possible reasons for your hard-to-detect negative self-talk?

The following could fuel consistent negative beliefs about your value, your opportunities, and your expectations:

1. Shame In Losing Your Job

Woman staring out a window doesn't feel confident in her job search

No need to be ashamed. It happens to everyone at least once. We cannot control what happens in the world and often we cannot control events in our lives. Nevertheless, we CAN control our reaction to what happens to us and we can DECIDE to take action.

2. Internalizing Past Failures

Frustrated man loses confidence after experiencing failure

"Success builds character, failure reveals it." âDave Checkett

Enough said?

Well, just in case: judging yourself for past failures builds a false self-image and can impact your self-confidence. Understand that failure is a part of trying and that, while owning up to your failures nurtures intellectual and emotional growth, defining yourself by your failures does not.

3. Desperation

Woman on laptop lacks confidence in her job search

Understandably, if you have been out of work for a very long time, creditors are calling you, and your funds are now very limited, you can easily find yourself in a desperate-feeling place. Yet, we encourage you to adopt a new attitude.

Employers need you. So, while you are applying for jobs online, keep this in mind. Think about the value you bring as you write your resume and disruptive cover letter. You are a business-of-one. What service do you provide for an employer that makes you stand out from the competition? How will you make or save the company money?

By making this change to your mindset during your job search, you'll come off as confident, not desperate.

4. Habit

Frustrated man on laptop doesn't feel confident in his job search

This is probably the number one reason we all do a little self-berating. We experience disappointment, become frustrated and angry, and sometimes need to justify what has occurred.

Make a conscious choice to be kind to yourself, coach yourself, and pay attention to what you could be saying to yourselfâbecause negative beliefs can make their way onto the visible aspects of your job search.

Break the habit of talking negatively about yourself, and you'll be surprised by how quickly your confidence recovers.

Begin Today To Change The Direction Of Your Thoughts And Job Search

No matter what strategic job search plan or interview strategy you have in place, if you cannot convince your prospective employer to hire you, your self-marketing tools are pointless.

You cannot sell what you do not believe in and you cannot energize others to believe in you when YOU lack that type of enthusiasm in your own services/skills. Confidence isâand has always beenâthe key to job search success.

Plus, it feels good to recognize how amazing you really are!

So, begin to take notice. Write down all the reasons why you believe your job search is not fruitful, what your weaknesses are, and why you think you are NOT the best candidate, and then eradicate that thinking. Replace it with positive self-talk and substantiate it with achievements. Ironically, exploring your negative dialogue and reversing it can lead you to discover your UVP (unique value proposition). This is what will get you hired.

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This article was originally published at an earlier date.

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Is Your Lack Of Confidence Holding Your …

Why Failure Is A Key Ingredient For Success

Failure is a negative word. No one wants to fail. Many of us do all we can to avoid the risk of becoming "failures." But have you ever considered what "failure" actually is?

Let's think about it from a different perspectiveâas another step in life that takes us towards whatever we do next. Not everything we do is going to work out exactly as intended. But if you are failing, you must be the kind of person who is prepared to take some risks. And that means you are far more likely to ultimately reach your potential.

Failure isn't the problem. Fear of failure is. You need to change your perspective and recognize failing can be the key to achieving success.

Failure Is An Effective Teacher

"Failures are finger posts on the road to achievement." âC.S. Lewis

It's easier to learn from failure than from success. It gives you the chance to analyze what's not working and do something about it.

Even if some factors seem to be out of your control, think through what they are. Can you do anything to reduce their impact? Or is there a way of gaining greater control of them?

Failure Makes You Resilient And Persistent

"I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work." âThomas A. Edison

By failing and then using what you've learned from the experience, you have the potential to become more resilient and more persistent. The more persistent you become, the less likely it is that you'll be emotionally affected by not getting the outcome you hoped for. And that gives you a better perspective for analyzing what needs to be done to move you toward success.

Every "failed attempt" simply becomes a new learning experience to fine-tune your efforts.

Trying And Failing Is Far Better Than Not Trying At All

Happy man becomes successful after experiencing failure

"I knew that if I failed I wouldn't regret that, but I knew the one thing I might regret is not trying." âJeff Bezos

If something is worthwhile, it's probably going to take quite a bit of work to achieve. So, build into your plans the expectation that it could require significant effort. But until you try, you will never know. And even if it doesn't work out, you've given it a go and will have learned from the experience.

If you're so busy worrying about failing that you never find the impetus to move forward, then visualize yourself in 12 months' time dealing with a sense of regret for never even attempting it. Which feels worse?

When It's Time To "Fail"

Woman on laptop doesn't let failure phase her

If you're not afraid to fail, it will give you another valuable ability. And that is being able to recognize when giving up on a particular goal is the right course of action.

Perseverance is important and you should never become the type of person who gives up simply because something is harder than you'd expected or taking longer than you'd hoped. But maybe you or your situation has changed and your goal is no longer relevant. Maybe your skills and talents are better off applied elsewhere now that time has moved on. Or perhaps you're doing the same thing over and over again in the vain hope of a different result.

If you've given it your very best shot and it still isn't working, it's time to change your approach. Would you call that failing? Or just applying some common sense about where to direct your energy?

Failure Is An Important Part Of Life

Successful man at work after experiencing failure

Think about your past and you'll probably be able to spot times when making a choice that wasn't successful helped refine your approach and eventually took you toward a better outcome.

Start viewing failure as a learning opportunity, use the lessons you gain from it, and take the first steps to setting yourself up for success.

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This article was originally published at an earlier date.

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Why Failure Is A Key Ingredient For …

Inspiration lacking this Monday morning? On the job search and feeling blue? Stuck in a career you hate? Not sure what success means to you? You're not alone. Grab a nice, warm cup of coffee and let us help you out.

Light your inner fire with these inspirational career quotes:

1. “Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life." —Confucius

2. “It's not what you achieve, it's what you overcome. That's what defines your career." —Carlton Fisk

Inspirational Career Quotes Carlton Fisk

3. “Work to become, not to acquire." —Elbert Hubbard

4. “Find out what you like doing best and get someone to pay you for doing it." —Katherine Whitehorn

5. "I've missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed." —Michael Jordan

Inspirational Career Quotes Michael Jordan

6. "Failure doesn't mean you are a failure it just means you haven't succeeded yet." —Robert H. Schuller

7. "The best way to predict the future is to create it." —Abraham Lincoln

8. "Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time." —Thomas A. Edison

9. "I think everyone should experience defeat at least once during their career. You learn a lot from it." —Lou Holtz

10. "I want to look back on my career and be proud of the work, and be proud that I tried everything." —Jon Stewart

11. "Dreams are extremely important. You can't do it unless you imagine it." —George Lucas

12. "If you can DREAM it, you can DO it." —Walt Disney

13. "Desire! That's the one secret of every man's career. Not education. Not being born with hidden talents. Desire." —Johnny Carson

14. "I can not do everything, but I can do something. I must not fail to do the something that I can do." —Helen Keller

15. "A mind troubled by doubt cannot focus on the course to victory." —Arthur Golden

16. "It's not the days in your life, but the life in your days that counts." —Brian White

17. "Success is how high you bounce when you hit bottom." —General George Patton

18. "Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new." —Albert Einstein

19. "Do not be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment." —Ralph Waldo Emerson

Inspirational Career Quotes Ralph Waldo Emerson

20. "All you need in this life is ignorance and confidence, and then success is sure." —Mark Twain

Inspirational Career Quotes About Success

21. "You can't build a reputation on what you're going to do." —Confucius

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We hope these quotes motivated you. Please share with someone you know who needs a little inspiration right now.

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21 Inspirational Career Quotes

"Learn from failure." You've probably heard that from countless articles, stories, and books. This article is to drive home some key points about learning from failure. Lessons you probably are very familiar with but need reminders about. Or, if you are new to this thing called "failure," then it will serve as a springboard to better success (I hope).

You hear stories about failure. You hear stories about success. Everyone hears how failure is the mother of all successes. Yet, you are still fearful of failure as if it is a black mark that will appear on your report card of life if you do happen to fail. And fail you will if you are like the rest of us mere mortals. Does that mean you stop trying?

Here are some tips for learning from failure:

1. Take The Risk And Pay the Price

Work colleagues discuss possible failures

Nothing ventured, nothing gained. You have to be willing to take the risk venture beyond your comfort zone regardless of what area you are in to gain some form of success. Think about the entrepreneurs, scientists, leaders, and businesses that took the path less trodden and how they were rewarded handsomely. If you are willing to pay the price with the risk you take, then the returns may just surprise you. "But, what if I fail?" you ask.

2. Know It’s Okay To Fail (Really)

Yes, it’s okay to fail. The adage we learn from failure is true. Be open with your mind, eyes, and ears. The lessons are there for you to understand and do better next time. Think about what you have done right, what you can do better, and what you should stop doing. That is one of the easiest ways to analyze how to learn from failure.

One side point: in cases like these, I dislike using the word "failure." "Setback" is my preferred word.

3. Realize Experience Is The Best Teacher

Team celebrates success after many failures

Think about this: if you do not fail in any of your endeavors, how do you learn to be better? How do you become wiser? People say experience is the best teacher. If you accept that to be true then you need to accept failure as one of the many lessons you gain from experience. So, you get to learn from failure. It’s that simple. Think about failures as lessons in the journey of life.

4. Allow Yourself The Freedom To Fail

Coworkers discuss successes and failures

Allow yourself the freedom to fail if you want to learn from failure. When you are too cautious, you do not allow yourself to take any risks. If you are safe all the time, then you are not giving yourself the opportunity to learn from failure. Give yourself the freedom to fail and see how the lessons of success open up for you.

5. Let The Fear Of Failure Help You Succeed

The fear of failure may not necessarily be a bad thing, as it can propel you to succeed. Some people use it as a motivating factor to ensure they succeed. As long as you do not get paralyzed into inaction and limit your appetite for taking risks, I believe the fear of failure as a propelling factor can be of good use.

6. Welcome Failure

There can be no success without failure. You should welcome failure as an opportunity to learn and you will learn from failure. The fees for learning from failure may seem too high sometimes, but in the long run, you will somehow discover it a worthwhile price to pay.

Ready to learn from failure so you can find career success?

Check out Work It Daily and all of our career resources. We'll help you feel empowered in your career so you can bounce back from failure and get on the road to success!

This article was originally published at an earlier date.

Acquiring Job Advance Your Career Career Changing Careers and Employment Education Internship