It’s fine to celebrate success, but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure. – Bill Gates

When things are going great, what do we tend to do? If you’re like most people, you celebrate! The boss may congratulate you on a job well done, or you might have a silent celebration for yourself by buying something nice or being treated to a fun weekend.

Meanwhile, what happens when you fail? Almost no one celebrates that time they lost their job, broke up with their significant other, or made a terrible investment.

Yet, in both circumstances, there’s something to be learned – perhaps more from failure. Instead of beating ourselves up over how something didn’t work, a better use of our time would be to reflect on what we could do differently next time. 

For example, I didn’t know what I was doing when I first got into rental properties. I followed some advice I got online and moved forward in the best way I knew at the time. But you never know what you don’t know. Over the years, I’ve had dozens of run-ins with bad tenants, tax complications, maintenance schedules, etc. In no way would I ever say that it’s been a smooth ride!

However, that hasn’t stopped me. I didn’t let it hold me back whenever I did something wrong. I took it as a lesson learned and ensured I wouldn’t repeat the same mistake. This has tremendously helped my investment properties to become more profitable, and I’m glad I didn’t resort to selling them early on.

As the old saying goes, what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. I firmly believe that to be true and not to let fear hold you back. For each of you, I encourage you to do the same. If you make a mistake, recognize it for what it is and move forward. The more you learn from them, the sooner your good decisions will outweigh the bad ones and the closer you reach your goals.