I OFFERED this quote to members of my business networking group this morning and they were… well, let’s just say that they were unimpressed: “In order to succeed, you must first be willing to fail.”

No one likes the idea of failure.

Most people do, however,accept that learning from your mistakes often provides a better foundation for ultimate success than plain sailing. But still, no one likes failure!

And if the above quote is based in truth, that’s bad news.

So this week I suggest you rethink your mindset with regard to the “failures” in your life and career.

Because, let’s face it folks, the challenging moments are not about to disappear so we might as well learn to love them.

What does failure give you that is pretty positive?

•A chance to be more creative

•An opportunity to ask for support

•Information about what doesn’t work…

•…and about what you don’t want in your career and life!

•And an invitation to smile at how things sometimes just do go pear shaped, to forgive yourself and to move on

Don’t underestimate the last one.

A truly successful person is tempered by the failures they experience and they learn how to take themselves more lightly, acquire humility and appreciate their success even more.

Thomas Edison famously clocked up something like 10,000 attempts to perfect the light-bulb and refused to see any as “failure”

in the sense in which we usually think of – each attempt simply took him a step closer to ultimate success.

So go on, give your next failure a big warm hug and unwrap it to find the gifts within it!