Failure is something none of us want to face. It’s also something we know we’ll have to deal with over and over again. Writer, speaker & advocate Ben Courson says faith in Jesus can transform the way we look at failure.
“When you fail forward, every mistake you learn from is a step toward the victory. Walt Disney was fired by a newspaper editor because he lacked imagination and had no good ideas. Thomas Edison was told by a school teacher he was too stupid to learn anything. Beethoven was told he was a hopeless composer. Colonel Sanders’ blend of eleven herbs and spices was turned down by over a thousand restaurants before he created KFC.”
Ben sees the narrative continuing in the pages of the Bible.
“David was a bad dad. Moses had anger problems. Elijah was moody. You look at Peter, who denied Jesus 3 times when a little girl peer pressured him! Basically these characters were failures. But we might fail, and yet God’s love never fails. That’s what counts.”
“It isn’t about how far we fall. It’s about how high we can bounce when we hit the bottom.”
As part of Ben’s invitation to become an “Optimisfit”, he shares some liberating data on a common need. The omnipresent pull so many of deal with us daily. Our need to be liked.
“25 percent of the people you meet won’t like you – no matter what! You can buy them a car, and they won’t like you. The second 25 percent of people you meet, they don’t like you, but they might be persuaded to like you. The third set of 25 percent do like you, but they might change their mind! And then the fourth set of 25 percent of people who you meet will always like you no matter what. But that also includes moms! So they kind of have to like you!
“So when I read that research a few years ago, it really freed me up. Because if there are people who didn’t like you, that’s part of what it means to be human. During most of our twenties, we’re trying to figure out why people don’t like us. Then you realize, no! That’s just par for the course. People aren’t my dictionary. They don’t define me.”
Ben Courson is a dynamic speaker, an advocate & the author of the new book Optimisfits: Igniting a Fierce Rebellion against Hopelessness.