“It seems to me that almost all our sadnesses are moments of tension, which we feel as paralysis because we no longer hear our astonished emotions living. Because we are alone with the unfamiliar presence that has entered us; because everything we trust and are used to is for a moment taken away from us; because we stand in the midst of a transition where we cannot remain standing. That is why the sadness passes: the new presence inside us, the presence that has been added, has entered our heart, has gone into its innermost chamber and is no longer even there, - is already in our bloodstream. And we don’t know what it was. We could easily be made to believe that nothing happened, and yet we have changed, as a house that a guest has entered changes. We can’t say who has come, perhaps we will never know, but many signs indicate that the future enters us in this way in order to be transformed in us, long before it happens. And that is why it is so important to be solitary and attentive when one is sad: because the seemingly uneventful and motionless moment when our future steps into us is so much closer to life than that other loud and accidental point of time when it happens to us as if from outside. The quieter we are, the more patient and open we are in our sadnesses, the more deeply and serenely the new presence can enter us, and the more we can make it our own, the more it becomes our fate.”

— Rainer Maria Rilke

Failure does not exist.

It only exists to those who are more concerned with appearing successful.

In order to continue growing as a person with your respective craft, you have to set unreasonable goals. That's the point. You have to aim outside of your comfort zone and push yourself to stretch for things that you cannot yet do. As we like to say around the office, "If you know what you're doing, you aren't trying hard enough."

However, in order to actually set goals far outside your comfort zone, you have to understand and be ok with the fact that you will "fail." You won't get there the first, or second, or third time. You will fall short. You will make mistakes and it won't be a straight shot to the end.

However, "failing" to meet the expectations you set for yourself when aiming outside your comfort zone actually moves you much closer towards your goals than if you were to "achieve" something easily within reach.

Thus: Achievement, in this sense, is actually detrimental. "Failure" is the real win.

The truly successful, the innovators, the creative geniuses, the legends all share this in common. They do not care about appearing successful or as having failed. They only care about knowledge of their craft, and they are willing to go to whatever length to get it. You can't discover anything new without "failing." You can't explore different ways of doing things without "failing." You can't forge a name of your own without going off the beaten path, getting lost, and then coming back and sharing what you've found.

Nicolas Cole

I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.

Negative results are just what I want. They’re just as valuable to me as positive results. I can never find the thing that does the job best until I find the ones that don’t.

Thomas Edison

Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.

Winston S. Churchill 

Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.

Robert F. Kennedy

Never confuse a single defeat with a final defeat.

F. Scott Fitzgerald

I didn't fail the test, I just found 100 ways to do it wrong.

Benjamin Franklin

We are all failures- at least the best of us are.

J.M. Barrie

Try again. Fail again. Fail better.

Samuel Beckett

If we will be quiet and ready enough, we shall find compensation in every disappointment.

Henry David Thoreau

Winners are not afraid of losing. But losers are. Failure is part of the process of success. People who avoid failure also avoid success.

Robert T. Kiyosaki

The phoenix must burn to emerge.

Janet Fitch

How much you can learn when you fail determines how far you will go into achieving your goals.

Roy T. Bennett

There is no failure except in no longer trying.

Elbert Hubbard

The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing.

Henry Ford

I was never afraid of failure; for I would sooner fail than not be among the greatest.

John Keats

If you don’t try at anything, you can’t fail… it takes back bone to lead the life you want

Richard Yates