#336: His Success Was on The Other Side of His Failure

Have you ever known someone who showed great promise but still failed?

I’ve seen it happen over and over in my career. On several occasions, I’ve worked with someone who thought they should get promoted, but they didn’t put in the work, and eventually, they quit. Sometimes the work wasn’t what they thought it would be. So, they self-destructed.

There are all kinds of reasons for someone to fail. But failure isn’t final until you quit. Or, as Sir Winston Churchill said, “Failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.”

Sometimes our greatest success lies on the other side of failure.

Patricks’s Failure

I was only a few months into my second assignment as a sales manager. The Human Resources manager informed me I would have a new sales representative named Patrick starting the next month.

Patrick showed up for work full of energy and enthusiasm. He was smart and ambitious. I was really looking forward to training him and preparing him for a promotion to sales management.

It only took a few months for Patrick to master the basics of our selling role. Patrick, with the confidence born of naiveté, started pushing me to promote him. The trouble was he wasn’t ready. Patrick needed more experience with his accounts, he needed experience handling larger accounts, and he needed to improve his writing skills.

I wanted to promote him, but I wasn’t going to make a promotion recommendation until I was confident that he had gained the necessary experience to succeed at the next level. Yes, he had all the smarts he needed; but he just wasn’t ready yet.

Sadly, Patrick quit just 3-4 months before I would have been able to promote him. I know he would have done well had he only been willing to take a long-term approach and do the work required to prepare himself for success.

Years later, I heard from Patrick. Unsurprisingly, he was doing quite well in a high-pressure sales position.

He had matured, and with that maturity, he did what it took to succeed.

Patrick’s success came on the other side of his failure.

Mark’s Failure

Mark was the son of a wealthy widow. Their large house in Jerusalem was a favorite meeting place of the apostles. Can you imagine being a young man sitting in your family room and listening to the twelve apostles discussing matters of faith!

His uncle, Barnabas, was Mark’s trusted friend and counselor. Mark became a disciple of Christ when he was working with Peter. Mark and Peter became brothers in Christ and spent some twelve years together (Acts 13).

Thus, given this early exposure to the disciples, it seems perfectly logical for Mark to be invited to join Paul and Barnabas on a missionary journey to spread the Gospel.

However, Mark didn’t last long on the missionary trip. Their first stop included a particularly contentious encounter with a sorcerer. Paul dealt with the sorcerer, but right after that, Mark quit and returned home.

When it came time for Paul to set out on his next missionary journey, Barnabas wanted to bring Mark with them. But Paul said no because Mark had abandoned them once before.

We don’t hear much about Mark until some years later, when Paul is locked in a Roman prison. Apparently, the issues between Paul and Mark had been resolved since Mark was caring for Paul while Paul was in prison (Colossians 4).

Paul refers to Mark as his loyal helper in his letter to Timothy (2 Timothy 4:11) and Philemon (Philemon 24).

Eventually, Mark matured. He found his place in helping and serving other apostles and became a staunch defender of the faith.

Mark’s success was on the other side of his failure.

Failure Isn’t Final

Patricks’ and Mark’s story of success after failure demonstrates the importance of not giving up.

Mark may not have been cut out for missionary life on the road like Paul, but he found ways to serve God by serving others as he matured.

Mark failed, but he didn’t give up.

Patrick was young and impatient. He wanted responsibility and recognition before he was ready. His impatience caused him to quit just before he would have reaped a reward. Over time, Patrick matured, worked hard, and eventually succeeded.

Patrick failed, but he didn’t give up.

Sometimes our greatest success is on the other side of our greatest failure. However, we will only see success if we have the courage never to give up!

More Articles

I’ve written several articles on the topic of failure. Here are links to a few of my favorites. If you want even more, search the website for “failure.”