The Real Failure Is When You Stop Trying.

Matthew J Carter
3 min readSep 2, 2016

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So you failed? Guess what?! No one cares. In fact, the only person who does care is you. Get up and stop complaining about that failed business, relationship, class, interview, etc… Figure out what you did wrong and fix It. The good news is many people fail and those who don’t give up usually have a great story when they inevitably do succeed.

Of course, there will always be that one person in your life who will tell you that what you’re trying to accomplish is delusional — don’t listen to them!

Instead, analyze the situation by asking the following questions:

  1. How many of their goals have they accomplished?
  2. How many have they abandoned?

I don’t need a crystal ball, but I can probably guess, they’ve given up — and because misery does indeed, love company, they definitely don’t want to see you achieve your goals! Now you could take what they say to heart, OR you can choose to use it as motivation for staying the course.

BEING A PERSON WHO HAS INDEED FAILED at all of the above and more can honestly say that if you’re getting naysayers, that just means your doing something right. Ignore the “haters” and haters are no different than white noise or static on a screen. Just get out your bunny ears, aluminum foil, and tune into a better station, (if you grew up in the 90’s and early 2000’s you get me.) For everyone else, honestly, you can just unfriend them. Those type of people are toxic and definitely do not have your best interest at heart.

If you find yourself feeling discouraged and think your past failures are an indicator of what the future holds — you are sadly mistaken.

Discouragement is a negative trap designed to keep you in a state of perpetual paralysis.

If you are too discouraged to keep working on your goals, then, of course, they’ll never be achieved. How do you guard yourself against negative opinions of others and your own negative thinking?

You don’t need to develop a delusional, happy-go-lucky, everything is peachy attitude — but you do need to remind yourself that what you want is worth working towards. Your dreams are there for a reason, they are there to motivate you, to propel you forward despite adversity, and despite obstacles. Your dreams are there to remind you that your reality today doesn’t have to be the reality of tomorrow.

Failure Is Always An Option

Even though it is an option is it the right one? I’ll leave that up to you to decide, but remember perception is reality and failing just gets you one step closer to success. To avoid sounding too cliché.

I will end with this: Failing sucks, it’s hard on your personal life, you lose friends, relationships, family, and the most obvious of all is your material possessions. However, giving up is tantamount to death.

Do you want to really know how bad life can be? Give up and see where that gets you, see if you wake up every day excited about life. Trust me it won’t happen!

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Matthew J Carter
Matthew J Carter

Written by Matthew J Carter

Entrepreneur and founder with a track record spanning 12 years in various start-ups, and one acquisition.