When you try your best and don’t succeed

Have you ever been in a position where you give your all to something but still end up failing?

Perhaps it was in your business, school work, marriage, office work, investments, career, relationships, etc.

Regardless of your age and stage in life, I’m pretty sure you’ve experienced this before. We all have. There is no man under the sun that hasn’t tasted failure or at least been on the receiving end of a less-than-impressive result.

But what do you do when you try your best and don’t succeed?

A. Some people throw in the towel, give up, and take another route.

B. Others cry their eyes out and vow never to give anything a shot again.

C. Some bold ones take their failure on the chin and give the stuff a go again.

So, I ask you again, what do you do when you try your best and don’t succeed?

Are you in Class A, B, or C? Or perhaps you think you don’t fall in any of the classes described.

Whatever class you think you belong to, I’m here to tell you this:

ge by the decisions they make.

If what you need to crown your efforts is a certain sum of money, do not hesitate to find and invest it. If what you need for success is a set of tools, go out there and take a loan to get them.

By and large, anything you think or know you need to perfect your best efforts, always make sure you have them in hand.

This is the only way to ensure your best will result in success!

What you’ll learn in this article:

• Popular figures you never knew tried and failed
• Why people try their best and still fail
• What to do after trying your best and failing

Tips to ensure your best will always guarantee success

Famous people you never knew failed before becoming successful

If you try your best with something and fail, you’re not the first. Lots of people have met the same fate before, and they were strong enough to turn their failures into positives.

I love to call them “The Successful Failures.”

1. Abraham Lincoln

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Would you believe if I told you Abraham Lincoln once went to war a captain and returned a private? Ask any military officer, and they will tell you being a private is the lowest you can be. Imagine someone going from the top of the food chain to eating crumbs. How bad can it get? For Mr. Lincoln, it got even badder.

After the military de-rank, Lincoln didn’t stop there; he tried to be a businessman but failed again. In fact, he even went bankrupt twice.

Like that wasn’t enough, he contested for public offices on 26 occasions, lost every time.

Eventually, in his last and final attempt, he became the president of the United States of America.

2. J. K. Rowling

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You may be looking at Rowling today and thinking what a great woman that is. But alas, the road to stardom was anything but cool for Rowling.

Before she published her Harry Porter works, she was extremely poor, divorced, living as a single mom while attending school, and writing a novel.

Like those weren’t enough, all 12 major publishers at the time rejected her Harry Porter manuscript.

But she never gave up. In the end, she realized her dreams.

3. Michael Jordan

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The story of Michael Jordan will always inspire you to try again, regardless of how many times you’ve failed.

Like every aspiring sportsman, Michael started playing basketball from high school. But he sucked at the game, so much so that he was cut from his high school basketball team. Try as he might, his best just wasn’t enough to earn him a spot on the team.

But Jordan wasn’t discouraged by his failure. Instead, he tried again, as he once stated in a famous ad, “I have missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I have lost almost 300 games. On 26 occasions, I have been entrusted to take the game-winning shot, and I missed. I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”

4. Oprah Winfrey

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No talk about the richest women alive can be held without a mention of Oprah. She’s every woman’s source of inspiration and motivation.

It will amaze you to know that the woman we all adore for her billion-dollar talk show and Media Empire was actually fired from her first TV job as one of the 6 pm news anchors for Baltimore’s WJZ-TV.

Why do people try their best and still fail?

It is not uncommon to give your all to something and fail. As you’ve seen with the stories of Michael Jordan, J.K. Rowling, and the likes, giving your best is not a guarantee that you’ll be successful.

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But when you fail after giving your best to something, it could be because:

• You’re not cut out for that something

If you think you’re giving your best to something and failing, it could be because you’re not cut out to be doing that thing.

Perhaps you lack the skill, or you have a habit/character that’s negating your effort, or your overall physical and mental attributes don’t align with the demands of that something.

In any case, check the requirements of that thing, and see whether you check all boxes.

• Your best may not actually be a “best”

Who even told you you’re giving your best? What you perceive to be your best effort may not be the right kind of effort needed to achieve success in that field.

If you feel like you’ve given your all to something, but you’re still not hitting the success mark, check with people that are successful in that thing to see what the benchmark for the “best-effort” is.

Trust me; your best may not be good enough. You may need to put in a little more.

• You’re missing an important piece of the puzzle

Being successful at anything is like cooking. If you miss any ingredient from the recipe, you will never get the cuisine right. Try as you might, your meal will never taste the way it’s supposed to.

So, if you find yourself struggling to turn your best efforts into success, it could be because you’re missing an important element of the puzzle.

Check with anyone you know who’s successful at that thing to see if you have all the needfulls needed for success.

What to do after trying your best and failing?

Ok, so you’ve given what you perceive to be your best, but you still failed. What, then, is the next line of action?

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• Ask yourself if you can try again

If there is one thing we can all learn from the stories of the famous people above, it is that they all tried again. But not everyone has that never-say-die attitude.

Once you fail after giving your all, just sit yourself down and ask yourself if you have the resolve to go again. 

If you do, continue with tip #2 below. But if you feel you can’t give anything more than you’ve already given, jump to tip #3.

• Find out why you failed

Perhaps you’ve tried a dozen times and failed; sit down and write down what happened in each of those times.

Similar as all the attempts might seem, there’s bound to be something unique about each one. Write down what you think were the reasons you failed in all of those attempts.

Do you think they’re things you can correct, adjust on, or find a fix for? If yes, then you can certainly try again. If no, then you honestly need to call it a day on that thing you’re doing.

• Try out something else

There’s no shame in giving up on something and trying your hands at new ones. If you feel you can’t continue trying and failing at something, then it may be a good idea to try out something entirely different.

Bill Gates started with Traf-O-Data, a business that created reports for roadway engineers from raw traffic data, but switched to Microsoft later on.

Tips to ensure your best will always guarantee success

At the end of the day, nobody wishes to be wasting time and resources on things that won’t yield results.

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In order to ensure your best will always guarantee success at whatever you do, follow these tips:

• Do what you enjoy best

Never ever follow the crowd. Before you set out to do anything, always ensure it’s something you really enjoy doing. Ask yourself, will I be happy doing this thing in a few years’ time?

If you’re convinced you’ll be, then it might be a good idea to set out to do it.

• Do what you’re best at

We all have our strengths and weaknesses. There is no point trying to be a basketball player when you lack all the physical attributes.

I’m not saying you should believe in the impossibilities. I’m just imploring you to be more realistic with yourself when setting targets.

Remember, what is best in life is doing what you are sure you can really do. That way, your best will always be enough to guarantee success.

• Always get help

Nobody is an island of knowledge. Irrespective of how strong your understanding of a field goes, always reach out to those who have been in the game longer than you. Perhaps for tips, guidance, advice, or words of knowledge, you never know how crucial these things may be.

• Never entertain laziness

Laziness can creep in at any point in time.

But the onus is on you to ensure that that’s never the case.

At all times, always ensure you’re keeping yourself on your own toes so that any effort you’re putting into an endeavor will not be crippled by a sloth on your part.

• Don’t put yourself at a disadvantage

Strange as it may sound, human beings sometimes put themselves at a disadvantage by the decisions they make.

If what you need to crown your efforts is a certain sum of money, do not hesitate to find and invest it. If what you need for success is a set of tools, go out there and take a loan to get them.

By and large, anything you think or know you need to perfect your best efforts, always make sure you have them in hand.

This is the only way to ensure your best will result in success!