the critical times, the fortitude and wisdom to embrace the cen-
tral principles.Use Failure as an Asset
Thoughtful observers have always recognized failure’s contri-
butions to leadership. Said Henry Ford, “Failure is the opportu-
nity to begin again, more intelligently.” J. M. Barrie observed, “We
are all failures—at least, all the best of us are.” And with brutal
realism, Evan Esar advises, “If you can’t bear to have your face
stepped on, don’t try to climb the ladder of success.”
Gail Sheehy writes in her book Pathfinders, “Although it is dif-
ficult to believe, great men and women often feel helpless and
afraid.... It is the rare leader who at
some point in life does not become con-
vinced that he or she has failed.”
Sheehy goes on to quote Lord Ran-
dolph Churchill’s description of Ben-
jamin Disraeli’s career as “failure, failure, partial success, renewed
failure, ultimate and complete triumph.” Then she describes Ran-
dolph’s son Winston’s career, which, at age sixty-five, appeared
to have ended in total failure. Yet all those Churchillian failures
prepared him for his magnificent leadership in World War II.
Most of us are familiar with the long list of Lincoln’s failures
before he became president. They contributed greatly to his real-
ism, his strategies, and his character—all of which made him one
of our greatest presidents. Failure is painful when it happens, but
it can become one of our greatest assets.
Train Yourself for Failure!
John C. Maxwell has written an entire book on learning from
failure titled Failing Forward. Page after page, it’s a steady drum-
beat of advice on how to persevere and rise above failures, with
illustrations of people from all walks of life who turned failure
into success.
He quotes former White House aide J. Wallace Hamilton in
CTI’s Leadershipjournal as stating, “People are training for success
The Leadership Secrets of Billy GrahamThere is the greatest practical
benefit in making a few
failures early in life.
THOMAS HUXLEY