1) It taught me resilience.

I married very young. When my marriage abruptly had to come to an end, It threw me for a loop. Here I was barely used to being a mother, and now I had to do it alone.I will admit that was my worst fear as a mom was trying to do it all alone. But I learned how to think on my feet . I whole heartedly credit this life event for my determination in business and leadership.  Although this was a very personal event, it forced me to focus on my professionalism, my ability to handle difficult conversations, my ability to lead and navigate my determination to succeed at work.

At the time, I worked in a mostly male dominated industry. I remembered overhearing a conversation amongst those men that I should "Stay barefoot and pregnant" since I was a single mom.  Those words stung, infuriated me, but gave me fuel to out perform them. Year over year, my store our performed them. Resilience. The ability to cry about it and then get up and go harder is something failure has taught me.

2) It made me more focused.

Failure forced me to pay more attention to detail. I remember I was 20 years old and living in my first apartment.  I barely had enough money for rent and I was making minimum wage. I called out of work for a severe family emergency and was fired when I returned. I was devastated. But the failure of losing this job made me focus even more at work. I went from making minimum wage as a College drop out to training, implementing policies, hiring and firing. I went from being counted out to surpassing others I knew with degrees.

Focus is something that is so important to success. You have to tune out anything not meant for you.

3) It forced me to spend more time thinking of other options and outcomes

Thinking of other outcomes really helped me to cope when I felt like I was failing at something. It made me consider other solutions, to look at situations from different perspectives. Surprisingly, over the years I noticed something. Despite how awful failing feels at first, not every outcome was bad.  Sometimes failing was redirecting me to the skill set and path I needed to succeed later.

Looking at things outside the box would be essential when running my own businesses.

4) It Prepared Me.

Without preparation, you will not succeed. That's it. That's the sentence. Failing at things prepared me for major wins later. It humbled me, it made me grateful,it polished me. When I faced bumps in the road later, I would say to myself  "Ok, I've seen something like this before. What did I learn from it that I can use?"  Stop looking at failures as road blocks and start looking at it like its a class in what not to do, lol. Trust me you will thank yourself for this shift in mindset.

5) It gave me more confidence as I learned.

I think about who I was before the birth of my daughter. I was barely working a few hours. I dropped out of College. I didn't have the best grades in High School despite being gifted and talented due to suffering from anxiety and depression due to personal issues that put a strain on me. In my mind at that time, I would not be able to achieve my goals in life.

But one thing I never did was give up. You can go through your ups and downs, but don't ever pack up and live in your lows. Allow yourself space to feel then keep going.  Fast forward, I went from being  part time secretary who could barely keep up, to running two stores as a general Manager making a company more than 1.7 Million dollars annually, to now saving lives as an Emergency personnel plus I run two successful businesses currently...plus I am a mother, step mother and wife to be.  Who I am today is credited to who I had to give up to become myself. 

Failure will make you confident that no matter what the World provides you, you can make it through.