Failing Forward Quotes

“In life, the question is not if you will have problems, but how you are going to deal with your problems. If the possibility of failure were erased, what would you attempt to achieve?

The essence of man is imperfection. Know that you're going to make mistakes. The fellow who never makes a mistake takes his orders from one who does. Wake up and realize this: Failure is simply a price we pay to achieve success.

Achievers are given multiple reasons to believe they are failures. But in spite of that, they persevere. The average for entrepreneurs is 3.8 failures before they finally make it in business.

When achievers fail, they see it as a momentary event, not a lifelong epidemic.

Procrastination is too high a price to pay for fear of failure. To conquer fear, you have to feel the fear and take action anyway. Forget motivation. Just do it. Act your way into feeling, not wait for positive emotions to carry you forward.

Recognize that you will spend much of your life making mistakes. If you can take action and keep making mistakes, you gain experience.

Life is playing a poor hand well. The greatest battle you wage against failure occurs on the inside, not the outside.

Why worry about things you can't control when you can keep yourself busy controlling the things that depend on you?

Handicaps can only disable us if we let them. If you are continually experiencing trouble or facing obstacles, then you should check to make sure that you are not the problem.

Be more concerned with what you can give rather than what you can get because giving truly is the highest level of living.

Embrace adversity and make failure a regular part of your life. If you're not failing, you're probably not really moving forward.

Everything in life brings risk. It's true that you risk failure if you try something bold because you might miss it. But you also risk failure if you stand still and don't try anything new.

The less you venture out, the greater your risk of failure. Ironically the more you risk failure — and actually fail — the greater your chances of success.

If you are succeeding in everything you do, then you're probably not pushing yourself hard enough. And that means you're not taking enough risks. You risk because you have something of value you want to achieve.

The more you do, the more you fail. The more you fail, the more you learn. The more you learn, the better you get.

Determining what went wrong in a situation has value. But taking that analysis another step and figuring out how to use it to your benefit is the real difference maker when it comes to failing forward. Don't let your learning lead to knowledge; let your learning lead to action.

The last time you failed, did you stop trying because you failed, or did you fail because you stopped trying?

Commitment makes you capable of failing forward until you reach your goals. Cutting corners is really a sign of impatience and poor self-discipline.

Successful people have learned to do what does not come naturally. Nothing worth achieving comes easily. The only way to fail forward and achieve your dreams is to cultivate tenacity and persistence.

Never say die. Never be satisfied. Be stubborn. Be persistent. Integrity is a must. Anything worth having is worth striving for with all your might.

If we look long enough for what we want in life we are almost sure to find it. Success is in the journey, the continual process. And no matter how hard you work, you will not create the perfect plan or execute it without error. You will never get to the point that you no longer make mistakes, that you no longer fail.

The next time you find yourself envying what successful people have achieved, recognize that they have probably gone through many negative experiences that you cannot see on the surface.

Fail early, fail often, but always fail forward.”
― John Maxwell, Failing Forward

“The difference between average people and achieving people is their perception of and response to...failure.”
― John Maxwell, Failing Forward

“If you're not failing, you're probably not really moving forward.”
― John C. Maxwell, Failing Forward: Turning Mistakes into Stepping Stones for Success

“God uses people who fail—'cause there aren't any other kind around.”
― John C. Maxwell, Failing Forward: Turning Mistakes into Stepping Stones for Success

“Ninety percent of all those who fail are not actually defeated. They simply quit.”
― John C. Maxwell, Failing Forward: Turning Mistakes into Stepping Stones for Success

“People change when they ... Hurt enough that they have to, Learn enough that they want to, and Receive enough that they are able to.”
― John C. Maxwell, Failing Forward: Turning Mistakes into Stepping Stones for Success

“Little progress is better than no progress at all. Success comes in taking many small steps. If you stumble in a small step, it rarely matters. Don't gift wrap the garbage. Let little failures go.”
― John C. Maxwell, Failing Forward: Turning Mistakes into Stepping Stones for Success

“Your attitude, more than your aptitude, will determine your altitude.”
― John C. Maxwell, Failing Forward: Turning Mistakes into Stepping Stones for Success

“Why worry about things you can't control when you can keep yourself busy controlling the things that depend on you?”
― John C. Maxwell, Failing Forward: Turning Mistakes into Stepping Stones for Success

“One of the greatest problems people have with failure is that they are too quick to judge isolated situations in their lives and label them as failures. Instead, they need to keep the bigger picture in mind.”
― John C. Maxwell, Failing Forward: Turning Mistakes into Stepping Stones for Success

“Failure isn't so bad if it doesn't attack the heart. Success is all right if it doesn't go to the head.”
― John C. Maxwell, Failing Forward: Turning Mistakes into Stepping Stones for Success

“A winner knows how much he still has to learn, even when he is considered an expert by others. A loser wants to be considered an expert by others before he has learned enough to know how little he knows.”
― John C. Maxwell, Failing Forward: Turning Mistakes into Stepping Stones for Success

“Great minds have purposes; others have wishes. Little minds are subdued by misfortunes; but great minds rise above them.”
― John C. Maxwell, Failing Forward: Turning Mistakes into Stepping Stones for Success

“No, none of these things are the key. When it comes right down to it, I know of only one factor that separates those who consistently shine from those who don't: The difference between average people and achieving people is their perception of and response to failure. Nothing else has the same kind of impact on people's ability to achieve and to accomplish whatever their minds and hearts desire.”
― John C. Maxwell, Failing Forward: Turning Mistakes into Stepping Stones for Success

“isn't fair. It isn't going to be fair. Stop sniveling and whining and go out and make it happen for you." Wishing that a risk wasn't yours to take won't make it any easier. In fact, it might make it harder. Your attitude about it is your choice.”
― John C. Maxwell, Failing Forward: Turning Mistakes into Stepping Stones for Success

“If at First You Do Succeed, Try Something Harder”
― John C. Maxwell, Failing Forward: Turning Mistakes into Stepping Stones for Success

“Risk must be evaluated not by the fear it generates in you or the probability of your success, but by the value of the goal.”
― John C. Maxwell, Failing Forward: Turning Mistakes into Stepping Stones for Success

“When it comes to taking risks, I believe there are two kinds of people: those who don't dare try new things, and those who don't dare miss them.”
― John C. Maxwell, Failing Forward: Turning Mistakes into Stepping Stones for Success

“The whole idea of motivation is a trap. Forget motivation. Just do it.”
― John C. Maxwell, Failing Forward: Turning Mistakes into Stepping Stones for Success

“The first important step in weathering failure is learning not to personalize it.”
― John C. Maxwell, Failing Forward: Turning Mistakes into Stepping Stones for Success

“If you could kick the person responsible for most of your troubles, you wouldn't be able to sit down for weeks.”
― John C. Maxwell, Failing Forward: Turning Mistakes into Stepping Stones for Success

“Every successful person is someone who failed, yet never regarded himself as a failure.”
― John C. Maxwell, Failing Forward: Turning Mistakes into Stepping Stones for Success

“The only way to keep your health is to eat what you don't want, drink what you don't like and do what you'd rather not.”
― John C. Maxwell, Failing Forward: Turning Mistakes into Stepping Stones for Success

“Past hurts can make you bitter or better—the choice is yours.”
― John C. Maxwell, Failing Forward: Turning Mistakes into Stepping Stones for Success

“If you know who you are, make the changes you must in order to learn and grow, and then give everything you've got to your dreams, you can achieve anything your heart desires.”
― John C. Maxwell, Failing Forward: Turning Mistakes into Stepping Stones for Success

“Success on any major scale requires you to accept responsibility . . . In the final analysis, the one quality that all successful people have is the ability to take on responsibility.”
― John C. Maxwell, Failing Forward: Turning Mistakes into Stepping Stones for Success

“People are training for success when they should be training for failure. Failure is far more common than success; poverty is more prevalent than wealth; and disappointment more normal than arrival. —J.WALLACE HAMILTON”
― John C. Maxwell, Failing Forward: Turning Mistakes into Stepping Stones for Success

“But I've come to realize that failure is a process. If you flunk a test, it doesn't mean you failed a one-time event. The F shows that you neglected the process leading up to the test.”
― John C. Maxwell, Failing Forward: Turning Mistakes into Stepping Stones for Success

“Rule #4: If you don't learn the easy lessons, they get harder. (Pain is one way the universe gets your attention.) Rule #5: You'll know you've learned a lesson when your actions change.”
― John C. Maxwell, Failing Forward: Turning Mistakes into Stepping Stones for Success

“Rule #1: You will learn lessons. Rule #2: There are no mistakes—only lessons. Rule #3: A lesson is repeated until it is learned.”
― John C. Maxwell, Failing Forward: Turning Mistakes into Stepping Stones for Success