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Over the years in my work with leaders and my work with leaders-to-be, people who are
still developing their careers, I found that one troubling thing they all face from time
to time is dealing with a failure or a setback. And dealing with that failure a setback is
all about perspective and attitude. Unfortunately, many of us, myself included when I was in
the beginning of my career, looked at a failure or a setback as a brand, as something I would
never get beyond, I would always be remembered for that setback that I had. And what I didn't
realize at the time was that with the right attitude that failure or that setback becomes
a growing experience, a learning experience. Now, I want to draw on two quotes that I think
really help put this in the proper perspective. One of them is to accept our humanness, that
things happen, but it's more important what we do with those things, what we learn from
them. That's more important than what happened. And the other one is this. The other one is
accepting personal responsibility for overcoming those setbacks or failures. First, let me
share with you a quote from Confucius: “Failure”, he said “is an opportunity. If you blame
others for your failure, there is no end to the blame. In the archer”, he says, “there
is the resemblance of the mature person. When he misses the mark with his arrow, he turns,
and he seeks the reason for this failure in himself”. Now think about that. When he
misses the target, he checks the draw on his bow, the position of his body, the arrow.
He looks to himself for what happened. Now the next quote, from Dr. Alfred Adler: “We’re
shaped more by our goals than our past”. What a ray of hope that is from one of the
most brilliant minds in the field of psychiatry in the 20th century! We are shaped more by
where we are headed, by where we want to go than where we've come from. Think about that.
Till next time, I'm Pepper de Callier.