The Truth About Failure - How to Prosper Anyway

Have any of your recent decisions flopped? I’ve had a few of my own, and just when I thought I might have to throw in the towel, (thinking I may no longer be qualified to teach success principles), I learned the truth about failure and am now more passionate than ever about helping you enjoy prosperity, even in spite of setbacks.

It all started back in May when my 5 year-old ran inside the house yelling, “Mom, Bethany’s lips are blue!!!”

I heard the intense panic in his voice all the way upstairs in my office and I went numb. I’m not sure my feet even touched the floor as I flew down the stairs and out to the backyard with one intention: to see my three year-old well.

My now eight year-old was by the side of the pool with her, having discovered her floating face-down in the deep end. He had already pulled her out all by himself and was waiting for me, hoping I could make everything all better.

She lay there, lifeless. Lips blue, no heartbeat, and not breathing. My nine year-old daughter was standing, crying, and I yelled at her to call 911. She froze, feeling the weight of the seriousness of the situation. “Call 911! CALL 911!!!” I yelled again and again until she finally began to run inside.

I had failed to keep my three year-old safe from this tragedy. Even though I had been successful at teaching her how to swim, on that day I failed to be watchful enough.

Subconscious programming took over. My first instinct was to pick my little girl up and lay her over my knee, upside down, as I patted her back. That’s what I’ve done for 15 years whenever my babies had trouble breathing… but of course it didn’t work, because she wasn’t choking. There again, I failed. I had one intention in mind: to see her well, and I made a mistake. I did the wrong thing. I failed.

Immediately I turned her over and laid her down again, letting her head hit the deck too hard in my frantic effort to try something else. I blundered again. I hurt her in an effort to help her. I made a mistake. My intention was to see her well, but I failed again.

If she were awake, she may have complained that I had hurt her head. But there was no response. How I would have rejoiced to hear her complain!

Get oxygen to her brain; that’s what I had to do. But I haven’t had CPR training since 1991. All those detailed, systematic instructions of what to do were forgotten in this moment. All I knew is that she needed oxygen to her brain until the paramedics showed up. I put my mouth over hers and gave her a breath. But it didn’t do anything except come rushing out of her nose. Again, I made a mistake. I failed. But at least it helped me remember that I needed to plug her nose.

So the next time, I plugged her nose, gave her a breath and it filled her chest. Common sense told me that it wasn’t her chest that needed the oxygen, it was her brain… and since her silent heart was designed to do the job, I gave her three or four chest compressions, and another breath. Another round of compressions, and she finally began to revive.

She spent the night in the hospital and gratefully, she completely recovered. There were, of course, lessons to be learned from this horrific experience. A shallow lesson learned was to be more watchful. Anyone could have learned that lesson. A deeper lesson was to really comprehend on a whole new level how nothing material matters, so long as our family is in tact.

But a few months later, as I sat in a hotel room finishing up the creation of our 12-week home study course, I had an even deeper epiphany which has led me to conclude that I was meant to experience all of our financial setbacks as well as this incident with my daughter to learn a fundamental, universal truth that I had never really grasped before. I thought back to some of our flopped investments, and then I thought about my daughter. It was then that I realized this:

We all make mistakes. With good intentions we sometimes fail. Nobody achieves success at remarkable levels and long-lasting prosperity without experiencing some failure along the way. How we respond to failure is really what determines whether or not we deserve to enjoy success.

We must learn from our mistakes and press on. How many times did I fail with my daughter? I failed time and time again.

How foolish it would have been to stop even for a second to bemoan my failure!!! There was no time to stop and beat myself up!!! Her life was on the line, and each failure provided valuable feedback to help me eventually get it right. If I had stopped to think about "poor me," I could have missed the window of time that decides whether she lives or dies, is handicapped or well.

Financial mistakes are no different. If you’ve experienced a few and are having trouble picking yourself up again, remember that your financial life is on the line. Take too long to bemoan your mistakes, pointing blame at others, and it could literally mean financial death or long-term handicap for you. It’s time to take a deep breath, take personal responsibility for where you’re at, learn from the experience, and get busy creating again. Prosperity is still yours for the taking. When one door closes, another one always opens. But we'll only find it if we stop looking so longingly at the door that closed.

(By the way, when we blame others for our hardships, we give up our power to solve them.)

This story was modified and derived from phase 2 of our 12-week home study course, which finally became available a few weeks ago (and which we’ve already practically sold out). If you’re fortunate to get one of the last ones already in stock, you’ll also receive 15 additional hours of audio on CD, and two additional books, plus it will arrive in just a few days (instead of 6-8 weeks).

As I write this newsletter, we only have about twenty left on hand. After these are gone, it could take 6-8 weeks to get the new ones out… so don’t procrastinate! Get yours today!“We received our Time and Money Freedom home study course last week and are excited to have it. We were traveling … and took along the CD's to listen to on our 10 hour trip. We are so inspired by the concepts you teach. We love it!”

“Thank you for your passion and drive to make the home study course available. I am experiencing success that thrills me.”

“Thank you so much for all the good you do. My wife just started your home study course, and is really benefitting from it.”

Claim your copy – yes, the one intended for YOU – at our bookstore.

Helping You Prosper: Why I Turn Some Prospective Clients Away

Often, after people read The Jackrabbit Factor they ask me to be their personal coach. Sometimes I say yes, but most of the time I decline. Here’s why:

For one thing, I am reeeaallllly busy. I can only give my personal attention to a handful of clients at a time. (Eventually I may add Group Coaching as an option, but for now it is one-on-one personal attention to you and your goals.)

Another reason is because as a prosperity coach, I am not here to provide answers (which may come as a surprise to some). I do not tell you what to do, and I do not take responsibility for your choices. My role as a coach is to see that the answers you seek come out of YOU, not me. Most of the time, a person who looks into coaching for the first time doesn’t realize how much work is entailed on the client’s part. It’s a common misconception that the coach is a contracted advisor, (one who gives advice) but that is not the case.

There are some coaches who will enter a contract with you so long as you can fog a mirror. For these, it seems to be all about revenue. On the other hand, other good coaches are genuinely motivated by facilitating the kind of changes you seek.

For me, I would sooner turn down the revenue than enter a coaching relationship that isn’t a suitable fit. Coaching is not cheap. It’s a serious financial commitment to the tune of nearly six thousand dollars for a six-month program. It’s non-refundable and what you get out of it is directly related to what you put into it. Not very many people are serious enough about their success to even make that kind of commitment. It certainly isn’t for everybody, and in fact success doesn’t necessarily require formal personal coaching.

To help you understand what prosperity coaching is and what it is not, let me start by saying that my husband and I have spent a fortune on personal coaching in a number of different industries… from marketing, to real estate, to business development, to success in general. In most cases, the coach’s role was that of a guide, a sounding board, and to provide an objective outside perspective. Over time, we erroneously concluded that the more we paid, the less we’d have to think. After all, thinking is hard work and how nice it would be to get to a point where we could just buy good advice.

On the contrary, we learned that the more we paid, the more we had to apply ourselves. We had to learn more than ever to think for ourselves, and take personal responsibility for our decisions. In the long run, it has been some of the best investments we’ve ever made, because we became different people for having gone through it. Advice is used up quickly, but character development is forever. The prosperity can be a natural byproduct of one's personal growth

If $5995 is too much to bite but you still want some help with your goals, here’s an option: start with our 12-week home study course for only $597. After you complete the program, if you still want personal coaching, you may apply that money toward the $5995 coaching fee, provided we enter into the contract within one year, and provided I believe we’d make a good coaching/client match.

In other words, if you get all you need out of the 12 week course, and you don’t need coaching, then you’ve achieved your goal and saved $5448!

Here’s what one prospective coaching client wrote after she took my recommendation to go with the cheaper alternative: “The home study is going good! I feel this was a better choice than coaching.”

Another wrote: "Leslie- I think at this point the 12 week program will work best. Thank you for your honesty. I did fill out the form like you said... Here it is. Thank you!!!"

To get the coaching overview and form (a no-obligation opportunity to help me know more about you and what you want to accomplish), click here.

To get more information about learning how to prosper via the home study course, visit our bookstore.

Wanted: ThoughtsAlive Prosperity Mentors

At ThoughtsAlive we are committed to creating and developing an interactive community where people can help each other understand and apply the principles of prosperity for life-long success. One of the things we have on the horizon include a peer mentorship program which will be an opportunity for qualified individuals to earn an income, and for others to receive mentorship at a more affordable rate than regular personal coaching.

We need people who want to be prosperity mentors!

The program will be launched in 2008, and in order to qualify as a ThoughtsAlive Mentor, you must not only graduate from our 12-week home study course, but you must graduate with honors. It’s relatively intensive, and generally requires a 2-4 hour commitment each week for 12 weeks.

However, you do not have to complete it within 12 weeks because there is no deadline to finish. You only have to accumulate a certain number of points and accomplish a goal of a certain difficulty rank, which is explained in the course. Points are earned based on the amount of effort put into each weekly assignment. Success will be a natural byproduct of completing each assignment with thoughtful, deliberate effort.

“How much can I earn as a Mentor?”

The pricing structure for peer mentoring has not yet been determined. And in reality, this program will be primarilly for those who are passionate about helping others experience the success they’ve experienced for the sake of “giving back.” If a person is only in it for the money, they will not be properly qualified to be a ThoughtsAlive Mentor.

True, it will be another one of those “multiple streams of income” and could range anywhere from a little bit to a whole lot of money. (How’s that for being vague?) Honestly, because of the way it will be structured, each mentor will naturally attract more clients according to his or her own application of success principles. ThoughtsAlive.com will simply be a vehicle for bringing the client and mentor together. Compensation could be in the tens, hundreds, or even thousands of dollars. There is no cap to what could be earned… and we are constantly working to bring more people to the ThoughtsAlive community.

Does this sound like something you've been looking for? Take yourself through the home study course. It's POWERFUL. It's more powerful than our $1500 three-day seminar and can be picked up for a fraction of the cost!

Here is what one current participant wrote: “Leslie, I can't tell you how much fun I am having doing your course. I just finished watching the Stick Man DVD … I loved the way you explained the information. Thank you so much for being willing to learn and teach truth. That is my mission as well and you are helping me on my path.”