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Failure forms your character more than success

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Winter - The Human Condition
One of the Napkin Dad’s artworks
(c) Marty Coleman, shared from Flickr

“I have had a LOT of failures and catastrophes in my life; schools I got kicked out of, a failed marriage, rejection in the art and academic world and physical disasters just to name a few.  If I had not had those ‘failures’ and not gained the resulting character I now have, I would not be able to take the successes I have had in a good, positive and mature way (which I attempt to do).
Our successes reveal the character we’ve built during our failures.”
Marty Coleman, the Napkin Dad

Part of our ongoing series on failure.

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About Becky McCray

Becky started Small Biz Survival in 2006 to share rural business and community building stories and ideas with other small town business people. She and her husband own a retail liquor store in Alva, Oklahoma, and a small cattle ranch nearby. Becky is an international speaker on small business.

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Comments

  2. I am almost at the point where I enjoy looking back on old “failures” – I would never be where I am today if it weren’t for them.

  3. In the past I would usually cut my losses and not look back at failed projects, but recently I have been going back and looking at them for inspiration.

  4. After enough years, there are some failures I can look back on at least with pride for trying. Others are still too awful to look at. But hiding our failures, acting like they never happened, doesn’t gain us anything. Thanks for your insights, friends.

  5. From my cabin on top of the hill, I can look down on many successes and failures, with a fair amount of “who cares” events. A trick I learned was to not dwell on bad times to the point of not going on.

    As I journey down the hill, I am counting on doing somethings wrong. It’s a good sign I’m alive.

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