Set up for Failure? Success Is Still Possible

A successful person is only as strong as their worst obstacle.

Interestingly, some of the most influential success stories are riddled with roadblocks. Tales of diversions specially designed to stop a business plan before reaching fruition. Hurdles capable of destroying a creative thinker’s ambition. Detours aimed to prevent an entrepreneur from reaching his professional goals.

Your journey may depend mostly on you, but success isn’t always inevitable.

Sadly, what may be deemed an easy triumph can be destroyed – swiftly, with no care for your emotional state. This may happen at an opportunity’s birth, as it reaches potential, or when gets close to completion.

Handling failure in a world so hell-bent on success is tough – especially if you’ve been set up for disaster. We are all aching to reach our goals. We hope to reach these ambitions without hindering our personal ethics.

Still, roadblocks are imminent.

Consider it nature’s way of providing you a character arc. A plot specially designed for your personal growth. A way nature can insure you’re provided the right tools to handle your goals once reached.

But what happens when you’ve been set up for failure?

How do you progress when there simply isn’t a route worth taking? When there isn’t a path viable enough to overcome conflict? What do you do when you’re prevented from reaching your goals?

Perhaps your professional environment is delaying your occupational objectives. Maybe the constraints of idle management have restrained your professional growth.

That voice of reason you once looked upon for valuable insight? Perhaps it has grown toxic and less motivational. Maybe your place of residence doesn’t provide opportunities for your specialties. Perhaps you are adapting more efficiently to this fast-paced, changing world than your employer.

If dropping your current situation isn’t possible, you must think outside the box.

Whether you’re restrained by legalities, geographic location, money, or a toxic environment – success is possible.

Still, if your current profession aligns with your goals, tread carefully. Don’t let your dreams die due to unprofessional business tactics.

Be cautious with your goals – they’re more fragile than you know.

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In the professional world, networking is key. And everyone in your niche knows one another. Word travels fast. Consider how quickly a social media post can spread across multiple platforms.

If you’ve been set up for failure, you must work around it. No matter the cost. It’s possible to remain successful. The following tips will help you figure out how.

– Remember: following the leader isn’t always the best option.

Leadership is essential in society.

In any group, workplace, or club a leader is put in place to create balance. To manage a group of individuals working towards a common goal.

Let’s consider the professional sphere – something to which we can all relate.

In the workplace, your manager is usually the leader. This person may run the place, but his leadership style may be detrimental to the company. What’s worse, his management ethics may stifle your professional growth.

Perhaps his demeanor with clients induces complaints.
Maybe his business plan is far too ancient to help your company progress.

Maybe he is stuck in business tactics that used to work – back before innovations and technology drove the world. You know, before social media became the primary way to expand consumer outreach.

Follow his lead as necessary, but don’t let it alter your morals.

Consider your co-workers. Is there another viable leader worth talking with? Could this person enforce change in the office? Work with this person. Maybe he – or she – could pull your company out of the trenches. Perhaps he could take your company’s future to the next level.

Not all leaders are meant to be. Remember that and you just might overcome the roadblocks set up by such pretenders.

For more information on effective leaders, check out this TED Talk by Simon Senek. As he so eloquently notes, “Good leaders make you feel safe.”

– Utilize the resources you still have.

A resource – as noted by its definition – is merely a source; a means of providing support.

Without the right resources, we wouldn’t be capable of meeting our goals. Thus, without support, being successful is tough.

Consider the following:

• How often are you asked to do something without being provided the proper tools?
• How many times are you told during the workday that you simply aren’t trying hard enough; that the tools are right in front of you?
• How often are you scolded for not being motivated enough? That perhaps you aren’t ambitious enough to pursue that artistic dream if you can’t handle the complexities you may encounter on the way?

Roadblocks can drive your character. But they can just as easily tear you down.

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There is only so much you can do. What happens if you aren’t given even the most basic instruments to complete a task? If it’s assumed you’ll deal with it successfully because you’re expected to do so?

Luckily, there are plenty of resources still available; many tools you can still utilize, no matter how far behind you are. Check for the resources not infiltrated by a sore management set up. Rely on your integrity; the strength that gets you through the day.

Trust your judgment. Learn what works best without having to utilize that resource that was ripped from your perspiring fists. Learn to remain successful within the realm of whatever obstacles have been placed in front of you.

Utilize the tools available to you. It’s possible – you can do it.

Don’t get stuck if your primary resource was taken. Learn to adapt – no matter the situation. If your expensive camera breaks, use your phone’s camera tool. If the printer jams before a significant meeting, incorporate your talking points into a slideshow presentation.

Life will hit you with complexities; little things that naturally make your progress just a tad more difficult.

Embrace the opportunities this offers. It’ll strengthen you. Soon, those moments will become easier – no matter how hopeless the situation first appears.

– Remain optimistic in a pessimistic environment.

Remaining optimistic is no small task – especially when you’ve been set up for failure.

You feel you’ve been betrayed. Left to suffer with nothing to hold onto when you fall down.

Thus, your environment – whether it be in the personal or public sphere – becomes exceedingly pessimistic. Negative. Completely rid of anything good you could utilize to effectively reach your goals.

But a large part of this negativity rests on your shoulders.

As hard as it seems, it’s really your duty to make the effort. To remain optimistic even when life throws the largest curveball you’ve yet to witness.

Success and optimism go hand in hand.

To remain successful, you must be optimistic. You must not allow any toxicity or damaging notions control your next steps.

You might think it’s not up to you; that you didn’t create this environment. That you aren’t at fault for crafting a place full of negativity. But when it comes to you as an individual, your progress is in your hands.

Your life is ultimately yours to control.

To reach success, your outlook should remain positive. Nothing can be achieved with purely negative thoughts. Your strength will overcome this tribulations – so long as you remain optimistic.

So don’t falter if your environment has become toxic. Don’t let go of your morals if it seems your workplace is no longer filled with good-natured morale and positive reinforcement.

Don’t let this pessimistic behavior overcome your mind. Success is still possible, if only you remain positive.

– Review past failures as lessons.

While your life is in your hands, not every failure you’ve experienced has been brought on by you. Quite often, the actions of others lead to consequences you could’ve never imagined.

Perhaps your partner forgot the business plan and you lost a potential investor. Maybe your camera broke during your recent move and you were unable to photograph the latest Northern Lights for that freelance gig.

As it is, failure is riddled with the same consequences – no matter the actions that caused it.

You may feel a look back on those failures unnecessary, especially if you played a part in their fruition. But you must look on those experiences with a different perspective.

If you’ve been set up for failure, it’s tough to consider what you could change. It’s difficult to decide whether your next actions will make success once again a real possibility. But you’ll never move forward if you can’t look back with an open mind.

Thus, all of those past failures – whether or not you were the cause – must be analyzed.

You needn’t spend too much time on this. It should be a pretty straightforward exercise. But in order to remain successful when failure is the most likely outcome, you must learn from the past.

Learn from what went wrong at that last meeting. Learn how you might have faltered when you last attempted to publish a short story.

Not all failures you’ve experienced were your fault.

But you must be willing to accept those failures as lessons – no matter their origin. Then, success will once again become a likely possibility. And the failure you’ve been set up for just might lose its control.

Success is possible – no matter how daunting that set up for failure appears.

We aren’t a perfect species. But success, meeting our goals, overcoming obstacles – that’s part of being human. That is something we are all hoping to achieve.

Don’t sit idly by while your peers set you up for failure.

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Remain successful. Learn how to progress even when the world around you is pulling on your every limb to keep you stagnant. To stop you from achieving what you know is possible.

Not everyone may understand your thought process. Your optimism may confuse your peers. Still, you will soon be a step ahead of the rest.

After all – your ambition is truly worth the fight.