If you try something and you fail, what matters most is not your result, but rather your attitude towards it. Do you let your failures affect you? Or worse, do you let your fear of failure stop you?

Babe Ruth, one of history’s greatest baseball players, with a home run record of 714 during his career, in fact, for decades held the record for strikeouts (1330 strikeouts). When asked about this he simply said, “Every strike brings me closer to the next home run.”

Walt Disney was fired by a newspaper editor for lack of ideas. He also went bankrupt several times before he and his brother co-founded Walt Disney Productions, one of the best-known motion picture production companies in the world.

Albert Einstein’s teacher described him as ‘‘mentally slow, unsociable and adrift forever in his foolish dreams’’. He was expelled and refused admittance to Zurich Polytechnic School. The University of Bern turned down his PhD dissertation as being irrelevant and fanciful. In 1921, Einstein received the Nobel Prize in Physics.

Star Wars was rejected by every movie studio in Hollywood before 20th-Century Fox finally produced it. It went on to be one of the largest grossing movies in film history.

To be the ALPHA in life, you must not let external circumstances affect how you feel about yourself and your ability to achieve your goals. ALPHAS lead their lives independent of their external results. They understand that it is their own actions, attitudes and assertiveness towards their goals that would lead to overcoming all obstacles and failures.

So the next time you are faced by failure, ask yourself, “how can this strike lead me closer to a home run?”

Awaken the Dream