Every human being on earth wants to be as successful as Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Dangote, etc. What we do not want though is to fail, but today we will be looking at failure from a different perspective.

Here is a short excerpt from Leadership coach and Motivational speaker John C. Maxwell’s book; “Failing Forward”. We learned something about failure and we hope that you will too. It is the story of a man named Daniel “Rudy” Ruettiger, who wanted to play Football (American Football) for a team called Notre Dame. He eventually succeeded after experiencing some failures but never giving up. A movie called “Rudy” was eventually made about his life and has now gone on to become a Motivational Speaker. You can find the full story in the 3^rd chapter of the book titled “If you’ve failed, Are you a Failure?”

RUDY’S LAST CHANCE

‘In the movie, Rudy Ruettiger gets in for only one play at the end of the game, and he sacks the quarterback. But that’s not how it really happened.

“In real life, I had two chances to get the quarterback,” says Rudy. “The first play, I didn’t get there in time. I was too anxious and didn’t execute the play. I failed.” But once again, Rudy didn’t let his failure make him a failure. He was determined to fail forward.

“I knew this was the last chance I would ever get,” he explains. “When they snapped the ball, I wasn’t worried about failing. I’d done that already, and I knew why I had failed. That’s how you eliminate that fear. You keep learning until you have the confidence to perform when you have to…

When they snapped the ball for the last time, I put the moves I’d rehearsed in my mind on the guy over me and I got the quarterback.”

Overjoyed, the team carried him off the field in celebration. Rudy says it’s the only time that’s happened to a player in the history of Notre Dame Football.

Today Rudy is a motivational speaker. And believe it or not, he was the force behind the making of the movie Rudy. Of course, it wasn’t easy for him. It took him six years to see that happen. (Two years less than it took him to get to Notre Dame!)

The people in Hollywood told him, “You’re not Paul Horning or Joe Montana.” Rudy Agreed.

“There’s only one of them,” he explained. “There’s a million of me.” And that’s the great thing about Rudy’s story. He doesn’t have the athletic ability of Michael Jordan. Nor is he a genius like Mozart, Van Gogh, Edison, or Einstein. He’s just a regular person---like you and me. The only reason he’s an achiever instead of average is that he refused to let failure get the better of him. He learned that no matter how many times you fail, it doesn’t have to make you a failure.’

That is the inspiring story behind the movie “Rudy” if you’ve seen it. He was an average man who chose to work on his failures until he became a success. Let that be your motivation this month, don’t you ever give up because failing does not make you a failure; keep trying till you get it right.