what is failure according to tom watson
Answers
In his early years, Thomas Watson was a struggling salesman with the Wheeler and Wilcox Company in Buffalo. He had just relocated to a new city and was finding it difficult to adjust to his change of environment, and having to sell products door-to-door.
After making a especially challenging sale, Watson celebrated his success with a drink at the local pub. While he was enjoying his drink, his horse and buggy along with all of the company’s equipment were stolen from outside the bar.
His success was immediately transformed into a failure and he was promptly fired.
It took Watson over a year to find another steady position which was selling shares of the Buffalo Building and Loan Company. At the time the company was led by a man of shady character, who ran off with all of the the company’s funds including Watson’s commissions.
Next Watson opened a butcher shop in Buffalo. This business soon failed, leaving Watson with no money and no job.
But Watson’s story doesn’t end here. Eventually, he went on to lead IBM, which was at that time one of the most powerful companies in the world.
What set Watson apart from his peers, and what can we learn from him that can help us bounce back from our failures?
Everyone Makes Mistakes
Everyone makes mistakes in life — it’s unavoidable.
It’s the steps that you make after your mistakes that make the difference between success and failure.
We can either let our mistakes drag us down, or use them as a learning opportunity and grow from them. In fact, most times we can learn more from our failure than we do from our success.
I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.” — Michael Jordan.
First, Attitude Is Important
Second is learn from your mistakes
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