Wednesday Wisdom: Failure Leads to Success

“If you don’t try you can’t fail and if you fail, get back up and try again,” has been my personal motto for the past four decades. If anything is worth trying in the first place, then it is worth attempting again if defeated in the quest for success.

This quote has been alive in my mind and spirit when I sought leadership roles in high school, when I sent in resumes for professional jobs, every day as a woman entrepreneur and in easy and hard running races. I can comfortably tell you I have fallen many times but I have always gotten back up again even if it took me longer than other times to try again.

I have never regretted putting my support behind women running their own businesses or for political offices or buying from International women owned companies or lemonade from girls selling on country roads. Last November I attended two fantastic events. The first was the annual state NOW (National Organization of Women) conference in Rochester and the second was the last event for the 100th Anniversary of Women’s Suffrage in New York State. I listened to panels at each event of women who had succeeded in running for political office. They each spoke about their passion to try again when their first run failed. Many have been in office many years now.

Fast forward to Syracuse in January 2018 at the Women TIES CNY Women Rising Weekend 2018: Women’s Business Networking and Empowerment Event entitled “Fall Forward in the New Year” to mark the one year anniversary of the Women’s March in Washington DC. After our speakers concluded, I sat down with Juanita Perez Williams, a woman I supported for Syracuse Mayor in 2017 who lost the bid, to ask her how she was doing. As you can imagine, working 24-7 every day for months to win a political office and make a difference in your community can be exhausting so Juanita’s response was totally acceptable – she wasn’t sure if she would run again or not. She needed more time to think about it.

I told her about the elected women I listened to on two panels who said they wouldn’t be in government today if they stopped after running and losing in their first race. I hoped it would put a positive thought in her mind to run again someday because I truly believe she is qualified to do the work with her long personal and professional resume. I have also seen her interact at events with volunteers and the community and like what I see. All I can say, is I am proud she is running again just like I would be proud of any woman I know trying again once they failed especially if they are qualified and passionate.

Women need to support women running for office so more women’s issues can be forefront and supported to help all women. If you are a democrat living in Onondaga, Cayuga, Wayne, and Southwestern Oswego County, make sure you cast your right to vote on June 26th for Juanita Perez Williams for Congress. If she wins, she will run against John Katko in November.

I hope this Wednesday Wisdom inspires you to think back on your own personal or professional failures and how you chose to raise up and try again. Whether you failed or succeeded doesn’t matter; what matters is you tried! I also hope you think about the passion you have in your life, the ideas you support, and the issues your care most about and continue to fight for.