No Need to Dwell on Life’s Failures


Published February 4, 1988. Herbert Otto, a national expert on human potential, has made an interesting observation. He claims that only one out of every 110 people are trained or are capable of dwelling on their positive attributes. The other 109, or over 99 percent of us, tend to focus on our failures. We become preoccupied with what does not go well rather than what does.

I have found Otto’s observation accurate. I cannot vouch for the statistics, but the general trend is obvious. Most of us are more concerned with what goes wrong rather than what goes right in life. And there seems to be a fair amount of both.

Some time ago I was asked to record some audio cassettes on marriage for a company in California. The president of the company told me he wanted something useful on marriage that he could market nationwide. The concepts had to be broad and general enough that almost any married couple of any ethnic, cultural, or socioeconomic background could benefit from them. I was also asked to create a workbook to go along with the six hours of audio cassettes.

It was quite a challenge. I worked three months on the project and finally completed it. After the tapes and workbook were on the market, I began to wonder. Would others accept what I had created?

After a few months we began to see some results. I talked to one of the company representatives on the phone one day about the sales. He mentioned the cassette program on marriage was selling about as expected. And then he just happened to mention, “We are having about 10 percent of the programs returned for purchase refund.” We then said goodbye and hung up.

I sat there for a moment. Ten percent returned! I was stunned. And to be quiet honest, I was very disappointed. I went into the other room and told Sue what I had just learned. Ten percent of my audio-cassette programs on marriage were being returned. The company offered a full 60 day money-back guarantee on every product they sold. And apparently one out of every 10 customers on my program was taking them up on their offer.

During the next few weeks the thought wouldn’t go away. Ten percent failure! I couldn’t stop thinking about it. Finally one afternoon I called the company president on the phone. I told him about my concern of 10 percent return on my audio-cassette program on marriage. He laughed.

He told me if I was going in to marketing I would have to develop a new perspective on failure. Nationwide, he said, the return rate on such programs is about 30 percent with a 10-day guarantee. The return rate for their company averaged about 20 percent with a 60-day guarantee, so he said they felt very good about both their guarantee and the quality of their products. Since my program had only a 10 percent return, they felt the marketing was going very well.

We talked a few more minutes on the phone, and I thanked him for the information. When I hung up this time I had a new perspective of failure.

Not everything we do in life is going to succeed or work out. There will be setbacks and failures but they should be compared with growth and accomplishments. Rather than focus on the 10 percent failure rate. I am now quite proud of the 90 percent of the people who enjoy and are satisfied with the cassette programs on marriage. And I have become a little more philosophical.

I want to be included in Herbert Ottos’ 1 percent of the population who focuses on what goes right in life.

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