So most people would say that failure is not an option. Failure leads to more failure. Failure is what happens when you don’t try hard enough or don’t care enough. Failure is for losers. They will tell you that winners never fail or that losers never win. That once a loser always a loser.

Here’s the thing though, none of these statements are true. Failure is vital to one’s success and growth. Failure breeds success. Thomas Edison was once asked what it felt like to fail at making the light bulb, 10,000 times to which he responded, I didn’t fail, I found 10,000 ways not to make a light bulb. Failure is just a stepping stone to the next step. Through failure we learn and we advance ourselves.

When you fall down you have two options, the first is to give up, the second is to get back up and try again. The choice is entirely up to you. The easy way out is to give up and move on. The question though becomes what do you gain from that? What do you learn? How do you grow? Failure terrifies us because we have been taught to believe it’s a bad thing.

But what happens if we change our outlook on what it means to fail? What if we change our outlook from failure is a setback to failure is just a stepping stone? What would happen then? What if we could convince people that failure wasn’t a bad thing but a tool meant for learning?

Here’s the thing, Michael Jordan once said that he can accept failure, he can’t accept not trying. Failure at least means you tried something. You put yourself out there and wanted to learn. An effort was made to improve yourself or learn something new. Not trying means that you are scared of failure. That fear of failure will become crippling.

Failure is ok, quitting is not. Failure is expected. Quitting is unacceptable. When things get tough, stand back up, evaluate what happened, learn from what happened, and try something else.