10 Powerful Things That Differentiate Real Success and Failure

What You Need to Know if You Want to Be More Successful

6 min readApr 10, 2020

There are certain things that differentiate real success and failure, which you need to know if you desire to be more successful.

Since you are reading this, it’s safe to assume you want more success in life. Even though there are different definitions of success, one thing everyone has in common is they all want more.

It can include more happiness, more wealth, better relationships, better health, more fun and adventure and a greater sense of purpose and meaning.

The Risks of Not Knowing the Things That Differentiate Real Success and Failure

Achieving success is never an accident nor because of luck. There are principles, when applied, that will lead to success.

The risks of not knowing what differentiates success and failure include:

Not fulfilling your dreams.
Feeling stuck and creating the same results repeatedly.
Not tapping into your full potential.
Letting setbacks stop you from going for what you want.
Making the same mistakes over and over.

When you learn the things that differentiate real success and failure, you can make better decisions to progress faster toward what you want.

10 Things Differentiate Real Success and Failure

There are many things that cause success or failure. The good news is you don’t have to know or focus on all of them. Knowing a few things will make a big differentiate to the results you produce.

Here are ten powerful things that differentiate real success and failure, which can help you focus on the right things to create what you want. These are mindsets you have to adopt to become more successful in any area of your life.

You will not reach new levels of success without taking risks. Knowing what risks to take and when to take them is an important factor between success and failure. You will know what risks to take based on your self-awareness and life experiences.
How often you fall down or fail is not as important as how quickly you can get back up. Everyone will fail in life, so it should not be a surprise when you do. You have a choice to let something you define as a failure keep you down or you can get back up. How soon you can get back up will impact the success you have.
Every mistake or failure is a learning opportunity. It’s pointless to get back up after a failure and repeat the same things that caused it. Your job is to learn from every mistake and failure so you can continue to get better.
Instead of defining something as a failure, view it as a chance to change your approach. A failure means an action you took did not give you the outcome you wanted. The obvious thing then is to change the actions you take next. When you change your approach, you will get a new result, which means you will receive new feedback.
Support others in reaching their dreams or achieve more success. Instead of bringing people down, lifting them up will make you feel better about yourself and motivate you to also improve. Sometimes, a compliment or word of encouragement can go a long way with someone. Remember, what you put out will always come back to you.
Success is an inside job so focus on developing yourself. The higher your self-awareness, the more success you will create. You will need to develop yourself through education or study, and also by learning from your mistakes.
Nothing is permanent so if you are on a downswing, know things will improve. Things are cyclical, which means if you are going through a challenging time, it will eventually change. Your job is to ensure you take the right actions to shift out of your low periods.
The people you interact with regularly will influence you. You cannot create the success you want if you spend most of your time with people who are not taking action to create the success they want. Having the right environments, including supportive and positive people, will support you in having the right attitude or mindset to be more successful.
The sooner you deal with change, the easier it will be for you to take the right actions. Change is inevitable. Those who embrace change and anticipate things better, will achieve more success. If you resist change, you will be left behind and not keep up with what you need to know or do to have more success.
Admit your mistakes and failures and take responsibility for your actions. Successful people show transparency and vulnerability. They do not hide things they have done wrong or things that did not work out well. This is about being responsible and not blaming external factors or other people for your lack of results. Taking responsibility will empower and motivate you to improve.

Final Thoughts

Neither success nor failure is permanent. If you learn what differentiates real success and failure, you increase your chances of achieving the results you want. If you take risks, be patient and practice persistence, your success is inevitable.

If you don’t know what separates success and failure, you will do the same things you are doing now, which means you will continue to get similar results. When you take the right actions based on your understanding of success and failure, you will improve your results.

Action Step: Choose one thing you can focus on for the next 30 days that will cause a shift in your mindset and lead to more success. Focus on other things progressively so you can integrate the factors that differentiate real success and failure in your daily activities.

Question: What are other things that differentiate real success and failure?