FEAR OF FAILURE

Fear is your worst enemy

Turn weaknesses into strengths
KFC Story
Edison story
Will smiths movie The pursuit of happyness

The Shawshank Redemption-- Tim Robbins,

Morgan freeman

Ludwig van Beethoven

Michael jordan

Moral stories

Introduction
All of us, whether a small kid or an adult, have good friends and worst enemies. But do you know who
your real enemy is? It is your own fear of failure. When a person overcomes this fear, he/she is sure to
attain success and have a peaceful life. Being bold, does not mean, not being afraid of anything.
Everybody has fears about something or the other. Being bold, simply means the will to overcome and
win this fear of failure. Here's a small story for kids to know about what is the plight (a dangerous,
difficult, or otherwise unfortunate situation.) of people who do not overcome fear. Read on.

The Story
Once upon a time, there lived a saint in a forest who possessed some magical powers. One day, when he
was in deep meditation, a little mouse came running to him and said "Oh holy man, please save me. I'm
very afraid of cats. I'm tired of trying to save myself from them every day. Please be kind and change me
into a cat, so that I don't have to be afraid of them anymore". On hearing this, the saint took pity on the
mouse and whispered a few hymns (a religious song or poem of praise to God or a god). All of a sudden,
the mouse changed into a cat. The mouse thanked the saint and left the place happily.

After a few days, the mouse (now a cat), again came running to the saint, this time with a request to be
changed into a dog, so that it need not be afraid of dogs anymore. The saint accepted the request and
miraculously changed the cat into a dog.

A week passed. The mouse (now a dog), again came to the saint, to be changed into a tiger so that it
need not be afraid of any other animal in the forest and can live at peace. This time the saint thought
that this was a good idea and turning it into a tiger will not only solve the mouse's problem, but also his
problem of getting bothered again and again. So, the dog was now changed into a tiger. The tiger went
happily to live freely in the forest.

A few weeks passed. A hunter came to the forest and started hunting on this tiger. The tiger
immediately fled to the saint and this time, as per its request, it was changed into a hunter!

But just after a few days, the hunter came to the saint and fell at his feet and started to cry. He began to
say "Oh great saint, I'm afraid of other people. They always tend to pick up a fight with me. Please
change me..". At this point, the saint interrupted and said "Look, whatever form I change you into, your
fear always remains with you. So, your form is not the thing to be changed, but it's your fear that needs
to be changed. Overcome your fear and you will be peaceful in your life whoever or wherever you are."
So saying, the saint changed the hunter back to his original form, a little mouse.

Moral
Fear is the worst enemy that needs to be conquered.

Moral of the Story by the Author is that becoming tiger from mouse is not the right answer to overcome fear
but it is the strong will power within yourself which can make a mouse even stronger than the tiger.

Story 2:
We can learn from those people who successfully overcame the fear of
failure and have shared their experiences with us. One of the person
who has shared the technique of overcoming failure is an Olympic
athlete Guy Drut.

I would like to narrate a story from Mark Mc Cormack international best

seller: What they dont teach you at Harvard Business School which
guides us on one of the most important tools to overcome the fear of
failure.

This is true story of a French olympic player Guy Drut. In summer of

1976, he was the only hope of France for win in olympic track-and-field
medal.

Naturally, he was afraid. He had the burden of carrying nations pride on

his shoulders. One of his friends Jean Claude Killy advised him how to
overcome the fear of failure.

Killys advice was very simply.

Killy advised Drut to repeat a few words in his mind over and over again.
Killy told Drut that he was the only one who can use his body and mind
for peak performance. He should keep on saying to himself:

I have done everything to get ready for this race and if I win, everything
will be great. But even if I dont win, my friends will still be my friends, my
enemies will still be my enemies and the world will still be the same

Drut says that he took Killys advice to his heart. He repeated this
sentence in all his practice exercises, during breaks and in between the
semi-finals and finals. He kept saying the sentences to himself over and
over and it blocked out everything else. Drut says: I kept on repeating it
to such an extent that I was still repeating it when I went up to receive
the gold medal!

We all can get benefit of this advice. Our self-talk reflects our expectancy
from our lives. Positive self talk is more than a positive mental attitude. It
is an evidence of determination in our future.
Story 3
Whats important: Fear for Death or the Thirst to
Live!

A wealthy old lady decides to go on a photo safari in Africa, taking her faithful, elderly
poodle named Cuddles along for company.

One day Cuddles starts chasing butterflies, and before long, discovers he's lost. Wandering
about, he notices a leopard heading rapidly in his direction with the intention of having
lunch.

The old poodle thinks, "Oh, oh! I'm in deep doo-doo now!" Noticing some bones on the
ground close by, he immediately settles down to chew on the bones with his back to the
approaching cat. Just as the leopard is about to leap the old poodle exclaims loudly, "Boy,
that was one delicious leopard! I wonder if there are any more around here?"

Hearing this, the young leopard halts his attack in mid-strike, a look of terror comes over
him and he slinks away into the trees. "Whew!", says the leopard, "That was close! That old
poodle nearly had m e!"

Meanwhile, a monkey who had been watching the whole scene from a nearby tree, figures
he can put this knowledge to good use and trade it for protection from the leopard. So off he
goes, but the old poodle sees him heading after the leopard with great speed, and figures
that something must be up.

The monkey soon catches up with the leopard, spills the beans and strikes a deal for
himself with the leopard.

The young leopard is furious at being made a fool of and says, "Here, monkey, hop on my
back and see what's going to happen to that conniving canine!

Now, the old poodle sees the leopard coming with the monkey on his back and thinks,
"What am I going to do now?", but instead of running, the dog sits down with his back to his
attackers, pretending he hasn't seen them yet, and just when they get close enough to hear,
the old poodle says

"Where's that damn monkey? I sent him off an hour ago to bring me another leopard!
Moral of this story.
dont be afraid that your life will end, be afraid that it will never begin.

Overcoming Fear of Failure

Overcoming fear of failure is crucial for success. For many highly successful men and women
who have accomplished great things in life, failure was merely a stepping stone to achieving
greatness.

Men like Henry Ford, Winston Churchill and Thomas Edison understood that failing to make the
attempt is the 'real' failure and that doing nothing, begets nothing - least of all success.

Likewise, women like Emily Dickinson and Marie Curie did not succeed initially and had a more
difficult time striving towards their aspirations.

Why then would someone have a fear of failure?

Not knowing what it really takes to succeed. One reason is that many of us are so focused
on success and the appearances of it, that we forget what it really entails. We rarely think about
failure as being a part of life and how many success stories have emerged from sheer failure.
No one talks about how many times Abraham Lincoln failed at getting elected to office
before he ended up becoming president . how Bill Gates dropped out of Harvard before
becoming a sensation in the computer world, or how Michael Jordan failed to make his
high school basketball team before becoming one of the greatest basketball players ever.
In these times of fast media and instant news we often see the glamorous side of success
rather than the obstacles and hard work it takes to get there.

Having unrealistic expectations. We often expect to succeed on our first attempt at a venture
and if we don't, we think we've failed. How realistic is that? Just because we failed a test, got
passed over for a promotion, or didn't get a 'yes' asking that cute girl/guy for their phone
number, does it mean we will never succeed at it? Not at all! Yet fear of rejection, or perceived
failure, stops many from trying again.

The same applies in competitive sports. Athletes must learn to accept loss before they
discover what it takes to win. In any sport, expecting to win from the onset is totally
unrealistic. Failure is part of the process of learning how to win. Likewise, in the
entertainment and music businesses. Most 'overnight' successes take years in the
making before they achieve high levels of success.
In his book Outliers Malcolm Gladwell repeatedly talks about the "10,000-Hour Rule",
in which he states that the key to success in any field is largely a matter of practicing a
specific task for a total of around 10,000 hours. As an example, he brings up that The
Beatles performed live in Hamburg, Germany alone over 1,200 times from 1960 to
1964, amassing more than 10,000 hours of playing time. He also points out that Bill
Gates met the 10,000-Hour Rule when at the age of 13, he spent some 10,000 hours or
more, learning programming on a high school computer that he managed to access.

Needless to say, 10,000 hours of practicing anything would include many occurrences
of failure, some frustration and falling short of goals.

Perfectionism. Some of us are afraid of failure because we believe we must be perfect.

If we make an attempt and then fail at it, we risk looking foolish and therefore feel
somehow flawed.

Perfectionists believe everything must be done at a high level with no room for
mistakes. If they can't get something done perfectly, they'd prefer not do it at all.
Unfortunately, this type of thinking deprives the perfectionist of real learning and the
benefits and value gained from experience.

How to Overcome Fear of Failure

Only by overcoming fear of failure can we achieve success in life. Here are some tips on how to
eliminate fear and focus on success:

Understand and expect that at times you will fail. Realize that you are human and
humans make mistakes. Before any of us learned how to walk, we crawled. We got up,
fell down, got up again and continued the process until we could walk expertly.

Don't take failure personally. Instead, view it as a stepping stone. Make certain you
learn from it and then apply what you've learned to future situations. Refuse to consider
failing a character flaw or weakness. Doing so will only prevent you from achieving future
success.

No one succeeds all of the time, probably not even most of the time. In baseball, star
players fail 70% of the time. Babe Ruth's batting average was .342 which means he
struck out 66% of the time. Wayne Gretzky's career shooting percentage in hockey was
17.57% meaning he missed 82.43 % of the time. Wayne is also famous for saying "You
miss 100% of the shots you don't take." So it is in life. You won't fail at anything if you
don't make the attempt. You also won't succeed!
 Remember that 'failure' has produced many successes. Consider how many people
in history had failed before they became successful and indeed because they failed.
Albert Einstein's teacher told him to quit school because; "Einstein, you will never amount
to anything!" Ludwig Von Beethoven's music teacher said of him "as a composer, he is
hopeless". Henry Ford's first two automobile companies failed.

Appreciate the benefits of failure. Ralph Waldo Emerson said: "All life is an experiment.
The more experiments you make the better." In other words, your chances of getting
things right on the first try are slim to none. The more you try, or experiment, the better
you'll get at it.

Believe in yourself. Rather than giving up when things don't work out, take it as an
opportunity to build perseverance and resolve. Believe that you've got what it takes to
work through the obstacles and difficult times. Remind yourself how many failures
became successful because they wouldn't give up. The wonderful poem Don't Quit by
Edgar Albert Guest is an inspiring illustration of that mindset.

The Benefits of Overcoming Failure

You build valuable experience and knowledge You build strength of character
and focus
You find more ways of being creative and sharpen your problem solving skills
It gives you an opportunity to redefine your goals or set upon a new path, if
necessary
You build flexibility and open mindedness
You increase self-confidence and self-worth
Failure is the foundation of success, and the means by which it is achieved." Lao Tzu

Good words to be used at the end of the speech

Failure doesn't mean you are a failure

It does mean you haven't succeeded yet .

Failure doesn't mean you have accomplished nothing

It does mean you have learned something.

Failure doesn't mean you have been a fool

It does mean you had a lot of faith .

Failure doesn't mean you don't have it

It does mean you have to do something in a different way.

Failure doesn't mean you'll never make it

It does mean it will take a little longer.

Failure doesn't mean God has abandoned you

It does mean God has a BETTER IDEA .

Failure doesn't mean you're punished

It does mean a chance to try something new.

So it is true! Failure is never final !!