John Tschohl is a professional speaker, trainer and consultant. He is the president and founder of Service Quality Institute, the global leader in customer service, with operations in more than 40 countries. He has written several books on customer service, including “Moving Up, A Step-by-Step Guide to Creating Your Success.” Tschohl is a self-made millionaire who travels and speaks more than 50 times each year. He is considered to be one of the foremost authorities on service strategy, success, empowerment and customer service in the world. His monthly strategic newsletter is available free online. He can also be reached on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.

The journey toward your goal may not be as easy as expected, but the twists and turns you are facing is what makes it worthwhile. Some of the greatest successes are by the people who dared to fail … but they did not give up!

Thomas Edison’s teachers said he was “too stupid to learn anything.” He was fired from his first two jobs for being “non-productive.” As an inventor, Edison made 1,000 unsuccessful attempts at creating the light bulb. When a reporter asked, “How did it feel to fail 1,000 times?” Edison replied, “I didn’t fail 1,000 times. The light bulb was an invention with 1,000 steps.”

Many people respond to a crisis by being overwhelmed by stress, which turns to fear. It is easy to be afraid when you have a crisis situation in your business, but if you remain brave, your employees will be too, and together a strong team is able to turn around anything.

For example, Fred Smith, the founder of FedEx, received a “C” on his college paper detailing his idea for a reliable overnight delivery service. His professor at Yale told him, “Well, Fred, the concept is interesting and well formed, but in order to earn better than a “C” grade, your ideas also have to feasible.

And Walt Disney was fired by a newspaper editor because “he lacked imagination and had no good ideas.” He went bankrupt several times before he built Disneyland. In fact, the city of Anaheim rejected the proposed park on the grounds that it would only attract riffraff.

From rejection to workplace screw-ups, everyone has experienced that all-too-familiar, gut-wrenching numbness. The great paradox is that the people who enjoy the most successes often endure the greatest failures.

A few common sense things to remember:

Don’t lose confidence in yourself when things don’t go as planned. I cannot stress this enough, and I talk about this in my book “Moving Up.” We are all a work in progress. But if you don’t take the time to critique yourself and your behaviors along the way, you run the risk of becoming complacent.

Improve your relationships with people because it is your relationship with people that make you successful in both life and business. If you discover that the same issues continue to arise, it’s time for some tough self-examination.

It takes hard work to make dreams into reality. If you set clear goals, have self-confidence to act and believe you will succeed, over time you will get where you want to go. Sitting still is easy. Make sure you look at all aspects of your life and make some changes.

Get regular exercise. The benefits are a sense of health and youthfulness, increased physical and mental energy, well-being, productivity and success.

Out-learn the competition. Be obsessed with learning and be a voracious reader.

Get plenty of rest. A habit of successful people should include an early start that will also allow you to get more done.

Ask. There are always people from whom we can learn. Everyone has a mentor who helps them on their path to success. If you believe in yourself, there is no one more qualified than you to jump on opportunities that come up!

Make time for your family. You don’t have to give up your personal life and enjoyment completely. Make a schedule that includes time for work and time for weekends away, hobbies and family life.

To reach for success and to overcome hardships or failures, we have to strive for the best we can be in every aspect of our lives, including how we feel about ourselves and how we treat others. If we are willing to try, to get back up after falling and we take advantage of opportunities, those bad moments can be nothing but a footnote in our success story. C&IT