How to recover from defeat

By M.Farouk Radwan, MSc.

How to recover from defeat

We all know that Steve jobs has became one of the most famous billionaires in the 21st century but do you know what happened to Steve before he reached that place?

Steve was a college drop out. He didn't drop because he was too lazy to learn but he decided to drop out because his family were going to spend their lifetime worth of savings on him in order for him to get the degree.

Steve used to walk 7 miles each Sunday to get the only good meal he used to get during the whole week. Steve started working in a garage with his friend until he created apple.

"Apple started with both of us in garage until it become a company that is worth more than 2 billion dollars in 10 years" Steve jobs.

But what does this has to do with recovering from defeat?
Put yourself in Steve's place. What will you feel like if you managed to create your own multinational from scratch and how will it feel like if you managed to be the owner of a company that is worth Billions in 10 years?

Won't you feel great? Exactly, this is how Steve felt before he was fired!
Yes, Steve was fired from his own company! I think this is the worst kind of defeat that any person could ever experience!

Read this article to know how you can recover from defeat.

How Steve jobs was defeated and how he recovered from defeat

No i am not talking about the loss of 10 thousand dollars or your life time savings but i am talking about the loss of a 2 billion worth company that he created from scratch and that took him 10 years of his life!

Imagine yourself being defeated that way after realizing your dreams? Imagine that you spent years growing a company only to be fired out of it after it becomes successful. (see Starting a successful business)

Steve was fired because of some problem that happened between him and the board of directors he hired. "Imagine being fired of your own company" Steve said during a speech.

Steve spent few months feeling lost, defeated and didn't know what to do. Then something inside him motivated him to start again. Imagine yourself starting again after giving your little baby that you raised in 10 years to someone else, what kind of defeat is that?

Steve started a new animation company and worked hard until they released the movie toy story which became a tremendous success. Within few years his new company was extreemly successful and it was bought by Apple!

That's how Steve got back to apple. The technologies he developed in his new company became the core technologies that apple uses and so he got his place back in Apple.

The right way to recover from defeat

I believe Steve jobs have left you no excuse. I am sure you were never defeated that way before.

Steve recovered from his defeat because:

  • He had passion and believed in himself: If Steve didn't have passion for what he do he might have decided not to start again and to blame bad luck for what happened to him, and because his story was horrible everyone would have believed him. (see Does luck has anything to do with success)
  • He understood that being defeated is a normal part of life: I am sure many people would have committed suicide or got severely depressed if they were in Steve's place. Because Steve had a healthy belief system he understood that being defeated is a normal part of life and that he can still rise up again
  • He didn't wait until his mood improved: A typical procrastinator would have been stuck forever waiting for the right mood to arrive if he experienced a similar event. Instead of doing so Steve started all over even though he was feeling horrible. Sometimes the only way to improve your mood is to keep going on even if you feel horrible until you make some achievements that can help you feel good again
  • He had internal locus of control: People who have internal locus of control are the ones who always believe that they are in control of their lives even if life treated them unfavorably. On the other hand people who have external locus of control are the ones who blame luck, others, the unfairness of life or anything else they find in order to escape from the responsibility (see Is life really unfair)

The moral of this post is simple. During your life your might experience a devastating defeat but if you decided to fight back you will manage to get up on your feet once again and you will become successful. On the other hand if you decided to give up then you will end up like most of the broken people out there.

The choice is yours.

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