Failure is the Step Before Success

Fear comes to us in various forms, but the fear of failure is one which often plagues us in writing. This fear can be anything, like your writing not being good enough, not being able to make your deadline, no one liking your work, etc.

We fear failing so much we often become paralyzed and either procrastinate or never give our writing a chance with an audience. The funny thing is that as we avoid failure, success often evades us, too.

But we don’t need to sacrifice our success to fear any longer. Using some insight gleaned from Robert T. Kiyosaki, I believe overcoming the fear of failure is within our grasp.

Fear is Not the Problem

While reading the 20^th anniversary edition of Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert T. Kiyosaki   I was taken aback by his insights on fear and failure in “Chapter Seven: Overcoming Obstacles.” While Rich Dad Poor Dad is a book on personal finance, I believe what Kiyosaki writes on fear and failure can be applied to our writing lives.

Here’s what Kiyosaki writes:

“But it’s not having fear that is the problem. It’s how you handle fear. It’s how you handle losing. It’s how you handle failure that makes the difference in one’s life.”

These four sentences pack a punch. Fear itself is not the problem. Fear is a normal reaction we have to failure, so really there is nothing wrong with having it, because it is natural and we can’t change what is natural.

What we can change is how we manage fear, how we handle failure. It is at this point where we have a choice.

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Handling Failure

“Failure inspires winners. And failure defeats losers.” —Robert T. Kiyosaki

Everyone hates failing. I have never failed at something and been glad I did. No, I want to succeed at everything. But life never lets us by without failure. In fact, failure is often the key ingredient to success.

Your success rides on this question: When you fail, do you let that be the end, or do you fight harder to succeed?

Have you ever entered a writing contest and spent hours on a story only to come out without having won a prize? After you lost, did you feel inspired to keep improving your writing so you could win the next contest, or did you give up on writing contests?

If failure makes you work harder to succeed, than you don’t need to fear failure. Even if you fail you know you will become stronger and succeed in the end. There really is nothing left to be scared about. You can hate failing, but you don’t need to be scared of it.

If you do give up when you meet failure, than either writing is not the craft for you, or you need to reset your mentality on failure.

Failure—The Step Before Success

Allow your failure to spur you onto success. Use loss as means to grow stronger and smarter. If you know failure is the step before success for you, than the fear of failure loses its hold over you.

If you tend to let failure defeat you, I do believe you can change your path. It will take work actively changing your reaction to failure, but I do believe it is something you can work towards and become better at. 

You can learn more about Robert Kiyosaki at RichDad.com.