's almost impossible to go through life without experiencing some kind of failure.

Failure is a part of
life; everyone has experienced failure at some time or other.

“Only a man who knows what it is like to be defeated can reach down to the bottom of his soul and
come up with the extra ounce of power it takes to win when the match is even,” legendary boxer
Muhammad Ali had once declared.

(To Read the Real Life Success Story of the founder of Naturals, who bounced back after a failed
venture that left him with a debt of Rs. 5 Crore, Click Here)

Yet the greatest barrier to success and one of the biggest fears in life that people have is - fear of failure.
It is also the major reason that holds back people from realizing their full potential and achieving their
goals.

Fear of failure immobilizes you, restricts you to your comfort zone, prevents you from moving forward
in life and hampers your chances of success.

Defeat is not easy to swallow. There is no worse feeling than facing failure. Failure leaves you bitter,
miserable and depressed.

It is then not difficult to understand why most people are afraid of failing. They prefer to play it safe
by restricting themselves to their comfort zone and avoiding any risks.

But playing it safe can also be risky. It puts you out of action. You choose to forgo potential
opportunities and push yourself into mediocrity. When you restrict yourself to your cocoon, you keep
yourself from tapping your full potential.

Failure is a matter of perspective. Many think failure as the opposite of success. But failures are in fact
the stepping stones of success. Nothing worthwhile in life has ever been achieved without a series of
failures. Failure is, as James Allen has rightly pointed out, one of the ‘pathways to attainment.’

Buckminster Fuller, the renowned American philosopher, architect, and inventor, popularly considered
to be the father of American landscape architecture once said, “Whatever humans have learned had to
be learned as a consequence only of trial and error experience. Humans have learned only through
mistakes.”

Fuller has to his credit 28 patents; has authored 28 books and has received more than 60 honorary
degrees.

Successful people also make mistakes. They also fail but they don’t give up. Instead they remain
steadfast. They overcome their fear of failure and are quick to learn from their mistakes.

There are numerous examples of celebrities, sportspersons, actors, authors and leaders who inspite of
facing defeat did not give up on their dreams. They succeeded in overcoming their fear of failure.
Michael Jordan was cut from the school basketball team; Steve Jobs was fired from his own company;
Warren Buffet was rejected by Harvard University, Richard Branson is a high school dropout,
Abraham Lincoln lost eight elections and Thomas Edison, failed more than 1,000 times when trying
to create the light bulb.

Failure did not keep these great people away from achieving their goals and becoming extra-ordinarily
successful.

As Emerson said, “Life is a series of experiments, the more you make the better. Each failure is a trial
in an experiment and an opportunity for growth. Even if a failure costs you financially, the educational
benefits can far outweigh the loss.”

Overcoming fear of failure is a major factor toward the achievement of goals. The highly successful
people are not the most intelligent, most gifted or blessed.