The Titanic – How to Avoid or Improve Upon Failure

If you aren’t familiar with the tragic story of the Titanic, the movie came back to theaters in 3-D on April 4, 2012.

The famous ship that was guided by an experienced crew hit an iceberg and sunk.

This teaches us a few lessons on success.

Even experienced people with good intentions can crash and burn.

An Ounce of Prevention

Before you say the Titanic sinking was fate or couldn’t have been prevented did you know that there were signs that they weren’t as prepared as they could have been? History tells us that some errors in judgement were evident. For instance it was suggested that they carry 48 life boats, enough for everyone on board, instead they opted to sail with just 20, which unfortunately was well within the regulations at the time.

Secondly, it’s said that the crew had not been trained well enough in carrying out an evacuation. Both points may be related to the thought that the ship was unsinkable, therefore they weren’t as prepared as they could be.

Lesson One: Don’t take anything for granted. Check and recheck everything. Troubleshoot as much as possible and even though you might never have everything covered, the more prepared you are the more you’ll position yourself for success.

Success depends upon previous preparation, and without such preparation there is sure to be failure.  ~Confucious

Better Luck Planning Next Time

Even if you tried and failed at a business or a relationship, the odds are in your favor that you can start over and do it successfully. That is as long as the failure of your business or relationship didn’t kill you or kill your will. If you survived, it means that you have an opportunity to do it better the next time, as long as you attempt to do it better and plan to do it better.

After the Titanic sank it was decided that many safety rules were out of date. New laws were recommended and numerous safety improvements for ocean-going vessels were implemented, including:

• Improved hull and bulkhead design
• Access throughout the ship for egress of passengers
• Lifeboat requirements
• Improved life-vest design
• The holding of safety drills, better passenger notification
• Radio communications laws.

They didn’t decide to stop making ships or stop sailing ships because of the tragedy, instead they went on to do it better. They did not give up, they learned from the experience.

Lesson Two: Learn from your mistakes. Embrace failure as a learning experience. Try to find out where you may have fallen short and compensate for it the next time you try, try, try again.

Mistakes are a part of being human. Appreciate your mistakes for what they are: precious life lessons that can only be learned the hard way. Unless it’s a fatal mistake, which, at least, others can learn from. ~Al Franken

Life Saver

You can save your career. You can save your life. Do not let the past prevent you from a brighter future. You must persevere. Failure is not permanent unless you make it so by giving up entirely. Thomas Edison failed over 1000 times but thanks to his perseverance, we have light.

Develop success from failures. Discouragement and failure are two of the surest stepping stones to success. ~Dale Carnegie

Rob Liano
Rock Star Life Coach & Sales Trainer
www.rockstarsalestraining.com
1.855.832.ROCK (7625)

 © Rob Liano and Rock Star Success Coaching, 2012. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Rob Liano and Rock Star Success Coaching with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.