Self motivation, articles and advice

Failure is a character building positive experience. Failing a few times can be more beneficial in gaining experience and in overcoming mistakes and handicaps than any onetime success. If you have come here to search for the Holy Grail you will not find it. Only you can ignite the magic catalyst. After this introduction and an exploration of my philosophy I will start the story of my life (on page 7) told in the hope that I might touch yours with the same excitement, fulfillment and adventure. This is no newsletter with all the answers, no claims of how I can sell you the maps of the road through life to achieve what your heart desires. You have possibly arrived here through some link on the internet highway. I make no claims and I make no promises. Rather, my motivation is a way of thinking and a philosophy of life I would like to share. This is the prosaic story of one person's failures and successes, his sufferings and his joy --- his passions. This is a very simple story of an average person's personal intellectual and business growth told in the hope that many other ordinary people can recognize in themselves the greatness that exists within us all. The ability to help each other help ourselves.

We are all taught that success is good and failure is bad. When we fail in anything the mindset that our subconscious adopts, that has been programmed by our education and society, is that this is bad. We suffer from the most pernicious handicap that our society has created - the idolization of the winner. Instead of focusing on the endeavour for excellence, which creates winners, we spend our time and effort looking over our shoulders waiting for the condemnation of society. All our enthusiasm and energy is expended in the negative sentiment of perceived failure instead of searching for the positive opportunities that lie ahead. Failure exists in the mind of the beholder. Remember that every time you fail you could be that step closer to success if you are learning from experience. If you are afraid of failure you can never expect to succeed. Your life will be a failure. Success in life is usually achieved only after taking calculated risks. Attitude, passion, energy and vision pave the road to future success. Ignore the negative and the rejections; use the experience of failure to focus on the discipline of implementing your ideas fearlessly.

My story starts at the age of 9 years of age. I was a small, thin, freckled youngster that grew up in the bush in Africa. I was sent to a school in the city where boxing in those days was one of the manly sports. On the first night of instruction I was called out by the instructor, gloved up and thrown to the mercy of an older boy who proceeded to beat me up. What I never realized was that all had been set up by the master. Special sparring gloves on my opponent and instructions to create maximum mental havoc and noise but minimum damage. When I climbed out of that ring bloodied and sore, I looked and knew that I had lost. What is the moral in this story?

The instructor called me on one side and said, "Now that you have seen what can happen to you when you have no experience maybe you will listen more carefully to me so that I now can teach you how to box!" I never forgot this fortunate experience so early in life. It set the tone for my future. Everything I have ever learned in life, I learned from other people. I have gone forward humbly in life from that day, passionately and enthusiastically willing to learn from my own mistakes and from those of others. I will share the failures that led to the successes in my life with you in the hope that someplace, somewhere this will make a difference in your life as well.

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