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Michael Jordan epitomizes the fact that a person’s opinion doesn’t have to be your reality. Oprah, Sojourner Truth, Muhammad Ali, Les Brown, Tyler Perry, Mary J. Blige, Frederick Douglass, Gandhi and countless others have been mislabeled, misunderstood, and overlooked at one point or another in their lives.

If you were qualified and some company, organization, or institution misses the opportunity to utilize your talents, it’s their loss not yours. There’s an expression used in sales that’s apropos for scenarios like this.

“Some will, some won’t, so what, next.”  Some opportunities will work out. Some won’t. So what now? Next! You’ve got to keep it moving. After all…

5.  Failure is only permanent if you quit.

Here comes the proverbial good news and bad news. The bad news is success is not permanent. After you achieve it, you have to keeping working to stay successful. (I know that isn’t really bad news, but just play along). The good news is setbacks aren’t permanent either unless an individual makes them permanent by choosing to quit.

Everybody knows that there are very few things in life more frustrating than putting your all into something and receiving an unfavorable response. But there is no reason to allow that response and the pain that probably came along with it to be the final chapter in your book.

Take some time to re-evaluate what happened using these principles and then move on to the next opportunity because…    

6.  New opportunities heal old wounds.

Has anyone you know ever been in a relationship that ended on a sour note? Perhaps the person was a little depressed, sitting around licking his or her wounds, and didn’t feel like doing much. Finally some one tells the person that he or she needs to get out of the house and go meet somebody new. And just like that, life starts to become fun again.

It works the same way with temporary setbacks. So, when you experience a letdown, as soon as you can find a new opportunity to pursue. There is an expression- “When God closes a door, he opens a window”.

No matter whom you admire or aspire to be like. More than likely he or she has experienced some type of temporary setback.  The powerful and prophetic words of Frederick Douglass remind us that  “If there is no struggle, there is no progress”.

Who knows? Maybe you’ll become the first person to achieve true success without experiencing any letdowns. If so, then I say to you congratulations.

But if you want to travel the path of greatness that countless others have traveled before you, keep this in mind. Temporary setbacks and letdowns are learning experiences. Albeit tough learning experiences.  But there is no reason for a temporary setback to turn into a permanent disaster. Instead you can turn setbacks into comebacks by using the six principles you learned today as an insurance policy. Make sure you’re covered.  Just in case.


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Copyright 2007 Al Duncan Enterprises. All rights reserved.

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Al Duncan—The Millennial Mentor™—is a World-Class Motivational Speaker, an author, and a renowned Youth Speaker. Visit him online at www.alduncan.net



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