"The strength of a man or woman is determind not by what he or she possesses, but by what it takes to discourage him or her...Author Unknown"

"Do not be afraid to make mistakes or fail."

This is the second tip as we discuss the most essential tips needed for securing your dream job and building a succesful business. Some people will agree with the above quote and some will not, and so although this post will be useful for anyone looking to learn the secrets behind getting ahead in the 21st century job market, it is more pertinent to those who might question the above statement.

And so you might say, you don't want to fail or you wish to avoid failing at all cost. Well if you take this view, and more importantly if you stick with this viewpoint then you are far likely to achieve less in your lifetime. So what would have been your legacy? Some people are just happy getting by, and it is the same people who wonder how these successful people manage to achieve so much and acquire far more. As you read on you will begin to discover how this is done, and what you need to do if you really want to compete in the 21st century job market.

As i have mentioned in previous posts, you are no longer competing with your neighbour(s), we live in a globalised economy which means that you are now cometing with candidates from around the world, and therefore you are going have to look at ways of improving yourself, gaining new knowledge and crucially learning how to market yourself far better than the rest of the competition.

For instance, i will always urge people to attend interviews, sometimes just for the sake of it, as it helps you in improving your skills and gives you more confidence for when you might really need to make that all important move! A lot of people get scared of interviews, and so how do you deal with this fear? The only way is to go for more interviews, as you will learn from your mistakes, it's like anything, the more you do the better you become. So don't be put off by attending interviews, it is part of your learning process, and it is important you view this as part of your learning. In the end you will become so good that you can teach other people. I speak from experience, as at one point in my career i was attending lots of interviews, it was a phase in my life when i was undecided about what i really wanted to do careerwise. The strange thing looking back now when i attended those interviews, some of which i was successful, and others where they said no, it has given me much confidence that i can show others, and almost like an expert in the field, reason i guess why i can share this post with you.

You see, if you are going to be successful at anything in life you need to do it regardless of the consequences, as human beings no one likes rejection, being told NO everytime, or having the phone dropped on you etc...But you have to go through this period in order to reach your destiny. I also read somewhere, if you are succeeding all the time then it probably means you are not trying hard enough or extending yourself. Real success is surviving, succeeding against all odds, isn't that why when we hear about people who have done so well in their lives, we scramble for their books and autographs. You see you can have success, anyone can claim relative success, but true admirable success comes from going the extra mile, going further than normal, being bold, underterred by negative comments or feedback, this shows courage, the ability to rise beyond the ashes of failure gets you far and way beyond others who are happy to stay safe. Indeed, Sir Winston Churchill was quoted as saying: "Success is going from failure to failure without loosing your enthusiasm". Success is the summation of all your failures. So be bold and dare to be different.

In John Harrison's excellent book: "How To Stop Working And Make A £Million Pounds Instead" he highlights this so well in a section of his book - it's ok to fail. He talks of Sir Richard Branson, apparently most of his Virgin businesses actually fail, but he remains one of the UK's richest men because his other businesses do far well than the ones that fail. Another person he mentioned, a personal favourite of mine. He is called the $billion dollar man because of his work for his clients over the years which has enabled him to arguably claim the title of World's highest paid self published author. If you want to learn anything about marketing you need to study Ted Nicholas, he really is the master. But apparently, despite all his successes he is perhaps responsible for more failed advertisements than any other author or copywriter in the world. So do you get the picture, the more you fail, the more you are likely to get nearer your goal, you have to try, banish that fear, look at every situation as a learning experience. A bit like children, we can learn a thing or two from them in the way they never seem to give up!

So the next time you have to attend an interview or make a presentation or whatever it might be, view it as a learning experience. No one knows it all, no matter how experienced or qualified they may be, so while you are on the journey called life, look at every encounter as an education. It will change the way you look at things and you just might be surprised at the results!

Femi