One morning in 2009, I heard the following quote (credited to a famous American celebrity) on radio:

"Success is the result of good judgement. Good judgement is the result of experience. Experience is the result of bad judgement".

The moral according to the radio presenter, is that FAILURES we go through in life (as a result of bad judgements we make) actually TEACH us THE useful lessons we need to learn in order to make better judgements that will ultimately enable us achieve success.

This is not the first time I have heard or read these kinds of powerful truths.

A lot of people actually quote them on a daily basis. What puzzles me however is that in spite of the fact that they KNOW these quotes:

(a) Many people refuse to view failure as offering any positive benefits. Evidence of this shows in how they look down on those they observe to be failing.

And also in how they AVOID it or HIDE all evidence of it when it happens to them.

(b) Fewer people these days are willing to put in the needed time and effort to acquire relevant EXPERIENCE which is an essential requirement for becoming MORE capable of making good judgements.

So many people seem to be in a hurry – no time to apprentice. They want to jump in and get made INSTANTLY. If necessary, they’ll cut corners.

But long term authentic success does not come that way.

Like the radio presenter (Femi Sowolu) pointed out, a lot of successful people we know actually started out by recording a lot of failures, till they learnt enough to succeed.

It’s so easy to quote these famous quotes. But DOING what the quotes say is a totally different proposition.

Fearlessly applying the wisdom from success quotes CAN help us achieve seeming miracles in our lives over time.

And by the way, it is very often those people who have done it the right way. That is. those who have achieved authentic success by following the rules mentioned above.

They are the ones who are able to DRAW from their wealth of experience based knowledge and wisdom to utter quotable quotes about how to do what they have done.

They are always full of experience based wisdom, which they effortlessly volunteer for use by others.

By following the same proven process, EACH one of us can also over time develop to the point where the words we say get put on marble, for others to learn from.

We can start this process by forming the habit of APPLYING the wisdom of success quotes diligently in our daily lives. 

NB: This article was first published online on 15th October 2009 by Tayo K. Solagbade, via www.spontaneousdevlopment.com