Nine Life Lessons

I was recently asked as part of an awards process to outline the lessons I have learned from starting my own business in 2001. I then referred to my blog to find out that of the 751 blog posts I have written - 164 of the posts have been dedicated to 'Lessons Learned'

Then I set about trying to summarize, and I thought there might be some value to the LinkedIn community in what I distilled:

1. Persistence is not pigheadedness.
2. Passion is authentic – you either love what you do every day... or you don’t
3. People are everything to success (family, friends, community colleagues) you cannot do it alone
4. Process sets you free; it provides the foundations for growth
5. 'Hope' is not a strategy
6. Brands are held in the heart of the customer
7. It is not about me – it is about the legacy I create well beyond my own generation - Asking "Am I making the planet a better place over and over again?"
8. The more I teach the more I learn.
9. We need to know failure to know success.

Which brings me to some of the great quotes put together in a presentation by friend Amanda Gore:

• "I have not failed I have just found 10,000 ways that did not work" Thomas Edison
• "Remember that failure is an event not a person." Zig Ziglar
• "Success is the ability to go from failure to failure without loosing your enthusiasm" Winston Churchill
• "Just because you fail at one thing doesn't mean you will fail at everything" Marilyn Monroe

For more failure quotes

Naomi Simson is the founding director of Australian online tech success story RedBalloon. She has written more than 800 blog posts at NaomiSimson.com, is a professional speaker, author of Live what you Love (pre-order now) and now TV personality on Channel 10’s Shark Tank (airing January 2015). Get to know her further on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook.