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Tuesday
20Mar

Remember The Alamo!

If you really want to learn the attitude of how to handle risk, losing and failure, go to San Antonio and visit the Alamo.  The Alamo is a great story of brave people who chose to fight, knowing there was no hope of success against overwhelming odds.  They chose to die instead of surrendering.  It's an inspiring story worthy of study; nonetheless, it's still a tragic military defeat.  They got their butts kicked.  A failure if you will.  They lost.  So how do Texans handle failure?  They still shout, "Remember the Alamo!"

He always told us this story when he was about to go into a big deal and he was nervous.  After he had done all his due diligence and now it was put up or shut up, he told us this story.  Every time he was afraid of making a mistake, or losing money, he told us this story.  It gave him strength, for it reminded him that he could always turn a financial loss into a financial win.  Rich dad knew that failure would only make him stronger and smarter.  it's not that he wanted to lose; he just knew who he was and how he would take a loss.  He would take a loss and make it a win.  That's what made him a winner and others losers.  It gave him the courage to cross the line when others backed out.  "That's why I like Texans so much.  They took a great failure and turned it into a tourist destination that makes them millions."

But probably his words that mean the most to me today are these: "Texans don't bury their failures.  They get inspired by them.  They take their failures and turn them into rallying cries.  Failure inspires Texans to become winners.  But that formula is not just the formula for Texans.  It is the formula for all winners."

Just as I also said that falling off my bike was part of learning to ride.  I remember falling off only made me more determined to learn to ride.  Not less.  I also said that I have never met a golfer who has never lost a ball.  To be a top professional golfer, losing a ball or a tournament only inspires golfers to be better, to practice harder, to study more.  That's what makes them better.  For winners, losing inspires them.  For loser losing defeats them.

Failure inspires winners.  And failure defeats losers.  It is the biggest secret of winners.  It's the secret that losers do not know.  The greatest secret of winners is that failure inspires winning; thus, they're not afraid of losing.

-Robert Kiyosaki- Rich Dad Poor Dad-pages 149-151


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