Positioning Yourself To Lose
For it’s through the losses…
…that we find the path to success.
My Dad was a great encourager. I had failed miserably at an academic endeavor. He could see my pain and the doubt I was experiencing. That’s when he said “It’s a temporary setback. What are you going to do now?” It was all the encouragement I needed. I quickly established a plan and followed it to great success.
Over the years as “failures” and disappointments challenged my resolve, his words echoed in my mind “It’s a temporary setback. What are you going to do now?”
As I’ve studied the lives of those who have achieved exceptional success, I’ve noticed that they don’t just have a solid methodology for overcoming their temporary setbacks, they position themselves to experience those setbacks. Why? Because it’s through challenging themselves beyond their current capabilities that they learn how to become better at whatever it is they do.
If we don’t position ourselves to lose we cannot grow - personally or professionally. Of course we need to be prudent in how we position ourselves for loss. We don’t want to bet the farm when we’re positioning ourselves for that next growth spurt and the initial loss we’re likely to experience.
There is another advantage to positioning ourselves for loss. The more frequently we experience temporary setbacks, the less likely they are to rock our world. The more of them that we experience, the more mentally and emotionally tough we become and the easier it is for us to overcome adversity.
It’s counter-intuitive, but if you want to be incredibly successful, regularly position yourself to lose.
The 7 Steps to Becoming INVALUABLE program is designed to help you see more effective ways of doing business – ways that dramatically improve your bottom line while making your life easier. In today’s blog I used Step 1, Contributory Negligence, and Step 5, Contrarian Mindset, to demonstrate how our natural avoidance of “losing” limits our success. For more information on the 7 Steps to Becoming INVALUABLE visit www.furtwengler.com/7steps.htm.
If you’d like to receive a weekly email reminder with a link to The Invaluable Leader blog or if you’d like me to address specific topics, please send me an email at dale@furtwengler.com. Please share your experience with our readers by posting a comment.





