Other’s Failures – Ways to Leverage Yourself

The fifth form of leverage is Other People’s Failures. Benjamin Franklin once said, “Man can either buy his wisdom or borrow it. By buying it, he pays full price in personal time and treasure. But by borrowing it, he capitalises on the lessons learned from the failures of others.”

Many of the greatest successes of history came about as the result of carefully studying the failures of other people in the same or similar fields and then learning from them. What or who has failed in your field. How can you learn from these invaluable lessons?

You will discover that truly successful people who genuinely wish to support you will share not only their successes but their failures as well. Pay close attention to their stories. This is often where the true gold lies.

Other’s Successes – Ways to Leverage Yourself

The fourth form of leverage is Other People’s Successes. You can dramatically improve the quality of your results by studying the successes enjoyed by other people and other businesses. Successful people have usually paid a high price in money, effort, emotions, difficulties and disappointment to achieve a particular goal. By studying their successes, and learning from their experiences, you can often save yourself an enormous amount of time and trouble.

Read biographies of successful people. Study the careers of those who have achieved great success in your field. Seek them out and ask their counsel. You will find that many successful people take great pleasure in helping younger individuals who are sincere about making something of their lives. Their advice can prove priceless. As you become successful yourself, remember the gifts received from those who have blazed the trail before you. Make an effort to give back to those who follow. This will bring you its own store of riches.