Everyone knows someone who is so afraid of taking that next step toward success because of fear of failure. More often than not, one needs not to look any further than him or herself.
That’s why book “Failing Forward: Turning Mistakes Into Stepping Stones for Success” by John C. Maxwell — a book I've been reading lately — has been such a refreshing book for me to read.
Many people believe that if one has failed again and again, they're taken further and further away from success (a belief I'm slowly pulling myself out of). According to "Failing Forward", on the contrary, failure just brings a person closer to success if he or she doesn't give up.
Why is it okay to fail, and to understand that failure is all part of the journey toward success? Because failure is just a reflection of mistakes, and mistakes in life are inevitable, no matter what the goal is.
Infused with stories of notable historical figures like pilot Amelia Earhart, golfer Arnold Palmer and surgeon and pioneer of antiseptic surgery Joseph Lister — all who had their shares of failure — "Failing Forward" illustrates the many ways a person can not only fail without fear, but turn that failure around to pave the way for success. This book shows, among other things, that failure is nothing more than a learning experience, that that experience does not define the person as a failure, and that the person him/herself should get out of the past and accept responsibility (and therefore control of his/her own life) for the failure if that person wants to move closer and closer to success.
I highly recommend "Failing Forward."
"One fails forward toward success." — Charles F. Kettering