Thursday, January 14, 2010

Learning from our Mistakes

Loved this quote from “Success on the Far Side of Failure—Learning from Failures” by Stephen R. Covey. Thanks to one of our Memorial Drive shepherds, David Buchanan, for passing it along.

Successful people often share similar characteristics. But I have come to believe that the single thing they have most in common is that they find success on the far side of failure.

What do I mean by that? I find that almost all successful people have experienced significant failures in life or in their work, but they have learned from their failures.

On the other hand, people who don’t recognize their failures or don’t seek learning from them, are often the ones failing again and again. Why? Because they haven’t learned the lessons from the failure—they haven’t gained self-awareness or understanding; they haven’t understood others or their marketplace; they haven’t developed the maturity for humility and integrity—and they find themselves repeating their mistakes again and again.

4 comments:

Terry Rush said...

Failures are some of our most important professors. They hand out tough tests at times, but they have such efficient communication skill that often their lessons are remembered well beyond the class time.

Good post, my friend!

Brenda said...

"they haven’t developed the maturity for humility and integrity" I love that line!

This was so good! Thanks for sharing! I heard a saying once that said something like my failures are just as much a blessing from God as my success and I should lay them both at His feet.
If we don't learn from our failures we not only fail, ourselves, but the one who created us.
I hope that in my failures, I'm someone that is developing the maturity for humility and integrity that Covey talks about. Sounds like an amazing book.

Anonymous said...

Unrelated but glad you got to meet Will in Nashville. He is a great guy and one of our song leaders here at Northwest! Thanks for helping with the Institute.

Shane Coffman said...

Matt, it was great to meet Will last week. You're blessed to have him at Northwest. I saw a guy with a great heart, big smile, and lots of enthusiasm.