Lessons learned from 7 very successful people

Do not be afraid of failures. Even successful and experienced people do not always avoid them. The main thing is to take a lesson from them and move on. In fact, when we face setbacks, we learn much more about ourselves and our potential opportunities. Some executives claim that they do not even consider privileged candidates who have not experienced any setbacks in their entire career. And what lessons did the really successful people learn from their failures today: Stephen Schwartzman, Alan Patricof and others?

Before writing her first book, Batty Liu attended half a dozen writing conferences, trying to figure out how to become a real writer. The advice of most of the speakers did not differ much originality. With the exception of one writer. She was not as popular as JK Rowling, but immediately attracted the attention of the entire audience as a person you want to be like.
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Betty listened attentively as she told how boring and unproductive her path would be in the writing world, if it were not for the various failures that she had to face. Her story of painful failures inspired Batty to go ahead, following her ambitions - if she was able to persevere in the face of many obstacles, why should this stop others?

In fact, when we face setbacks, we learn much more about ourselves and our potential opportunities. Some executives claim that they do not even consider privileged candidates who have not experienced any setbacks in their entire career. Eric Rees, a well-known high-tech and business blogger who founded the Lean Startup movement, wrote The Lean Startup, which has become a bible for entrepreneurs. In it, he describes how his business acumen was honed with every failure.

So what can failure teach us? Betty Liu asked this question to many successful people. This article provides the answers to the 7 most successful of them.

1. Sally Kravchik revised her view on failures.

When she was fired from her job on Wall Street, Kravchik decided to change her career and went into business. Today, more than ever, she feels like a realized person, even despite the fact that incomes in the banking business were much higher (we previously translated an article about 10 things that we should think about before quitting work ). “You decide how much money you need to earn?” She asks. “Or is a corporate jet needed? I myself solve all these issues. Did I have such an opportunity when I worked as an analyst in a bank? Of course not".

2. George Zimmer realized that his business model was not working.

Having worked in his company for 10 years, the founder and CEO of the Men's Wearhouse distribution network was on the verge of bankruptcy - he traveled around the country in search of half a million dollars to invest in funds. Fortunately, his mother helped him out and helped save the business. Zimmer claims that he learned a valuable lesson from all of this: this business model does not work. “In fact, problems have arisen because of this model — the revised and lower-priced economic model of the mid-1980s,” he said. After decades, Zimmer has achieved billions of dollars in sales.

3. Stephen Schwartzman learned to express his opinion.

Today this billionaire is one of the most successful businessmen and investors in the world. Once he was an ordinary high school student who was preparing for college. But that’s the end of it. When Schwartzman was not accepted to Harvard, he did what few people would have decided on — he called the dean and told him that he had made a mistake. “At that moment it seemed to me that they were doing wrong, although if it had not happened, I would never have achieved my goal,” he said. Schwartzman entered Yale, and later at Harvard they greatly regretted not accepting him.

4. Jay Margolis learned how important it is to remain true to yourself.

After working for many years in the trading networks of such famous brands as Reebok, Esprit, Tommy Hilfiger, and others, he realized how important it is to comply with the corporate ethics of the company. From the very first day of work at Hilfiger, he felt uncomfortable there. “We had different views on doing business, on what and how to do. In addition, there were many people in the company whom I would never have hired, ”he said. It was not long before he left Hilfiger.
“The company's management and all its employees must be like-minded and adhere to the same life values”

5. Andrea Jung understood that the main thing is not titles, but a favorite thing.

When Jung missed the opportunity to become Avon's CEO, she did not despair, but continued to work with tripled energy to prove that she was better than her competitor. “Every morning I woke up thinking that I should become the CEO. But my ultimate goal was not in this position, ”she said. “My real dream was to be able to do what I loved, to make a feasible contribution to the development of the company and to do what was really interesting. That is why I decided to stay. ” As it turned out later, this decision turned out to be the right one - the former general director suddenly left his post, and Jung began to lead the company.

6. Trevor Burgess learned how important it is to be “thick-skinned”.

When Burgess was a student, one of his fellow students gave him the nickname "rejected homosexual". From this, he was experiencing heartache and feeling lonely. Looking back, now the CEO of the bank says that this unpleasant episode in his youth helped him learn how to deal with stress, incomprehension and criticism . “First of all, I understood that in order to survive, especially in the business world, I have to become“ thick-skinned ”. Secondly, to be successful, one must be authentic, that is, always remain oneself. ”

7. Alan Patricof revised his views on business.

Patricof is a legend in the world of venture capital. But even he is not immune from mistakes. One of the most painful decisions was to stop investing in Starbucks, the largest coffee company in the world. "I asked myself:" Have you lost your mind? After all, in New York we have a huge number of establishments that are called coffee shops or snack bars - literally in every quarter. Why do we need another type of coffee? ”“ - says Alan. “Then I didn’t understand what Starbucks philosophy is - it was not just coffee shops, but a real way of life. It was a big mistake to think that there were enough coffee shops in New York. But the biggest misconception was confidence about the business - if it does not work in New York, then it will not work anywhere. We must. We must reconsider this statement. "

PS We recommend another useful article on the work on yourself - Five secrets of willpower education from an FBI agent .

The author of the translation is Vyacheslav Davidenko, the founder of the TESTutor company.