In America, we hear a lot about Henry Ford. We learn that he was a visionary man who changed the world. A hemisphere away in Japan, another man is heralded as the father of the automobile industry for that country. Known as “The Henry Ford of Japan,” Soichiro Honda is an icon in the Land of the Rising Sun.
Soichiro spent his formative years in a working class family, laboring alongside his father in his bicycle repair business. At the age of 15, with no formal education, Soichiro left home for Tokyo to seek his fortune. For several years, he went from job to job, without any success to speak of. At the age of 22, Soichiro started his own auto repair business.
From these humble beginnings, a prodigious career was born. Over the course of the next 20 years, through a long and turbulent string of trial and error, Soichiro began manufacturing piston rings for small engines, and eventually complete engines for motorcycles. By 1948, he had formed Honda Motor Company. This company grew into a multibillion dollar international giant, manufacturing the best-selling motorcycles in the world, acquiring larger market share than Triumph and Harley Davidson in their respective home markets. And later, Honda would become the largest manufacturer of internal combustion engines in the world. I imagine that many of you reading this have a Honda automobile, motorcycle, or lawn mower in your garage. I myself own a Honda lawn mower and have owned a Honda Accord.
Arguably the most famous quote from the legendary Soichiro Honda is: “Success is 99% failure.”
Perhaps you just did a double take. Perhaps that quote seems illogical. Ponder this quote by Thomas Watson, Sr., founder of IBM. Said this business baron, “If you want to increase your success rate, double your failure rate.” Successful people learn from the crucible of experience that their failures were essential on their journeys to success. Failures were their practice shots, without which they would never have scored. If you research business quotes on failure, you will see a litany of business icons saying basically the same thing: that they succeed because they fail. It is thus because through these failures, they gain wisdom, perspective, and an enhanced ability to succeed in future attempts.
Imagine if Bach or Michael Jordan had never practiced? What if Bach had never scratched out a line of music and replaced it with a better one, or if Michael never warmed up and prepared himself to take a game winning shot? Speaking for myself, my life would be less rich with no Brandenburg Concertos and no Air Jordan basketball shoes!
As Wayne Gretzky famously proffered, “you miss 100% of the shots you never take”. If a baseball player bats .300, he makes millions of dollars per year. Stated another way, if a baseball player fails to get a hit 70% of the time they come to the plate, he makes millions of dollars a year. Great hitters know and accept this, and further, every time they fail to get a hit, they learn something about why they did not get a hit at that at bat, and they become the wiser for it in their next plate appearances.
Building any enduring, successful business requires failure, and a lot of it. Soichiro Honda knew it, and I know it. It is no different in Network Marketing. We must all learn to appreciate this axiomatic truth. This does not mean that we plan to fail, nor does it mean that we rejoice in every slip up we make. It merely means that we do not lose our drive, energy, or perspective when failure happens! We smile and lick our chops because we know that with our newfound wisdom, success is surely lurking.
Electrically Yours,
Clint McKinlay
President & CMO
Winston Churchill failed sixth grade. He was subsequently defeated in every election for public office until he became Prime Minister at the age of 62. He later wrote, "Never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never - in nothing, great or small, large or petty - never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense. Never, Never, Never, Never give up." 
Someone has said, “We don’t see things as they are, we see things as we are.” If you are going to be successful at this business you need to take 100% responsibility. 
Every morning after you wake up, write down one thing you accomplished the day before that moves you closer to your personal or professional goals.
In America, we hear a lot about Henry Ford. We learn that he was a visionary man who changed the world. A hemisphere away in Japan, another man is heralded as the father of the automobile industry for that country. Known as “The Henry Ford of Japan,” Soichiro Honda is an icon in the Land of the Rising Sun.
An industry friend of mine recently wrote: “Greatness is forged through adversity. It has always been that way.” This comment spawned some conversation regarding the nature of mankind to seek the path of least resistance and thereby circumvent the very obstacles that may strengthen them and allow them to become their best selves. Nonetheless, it is true that we learn the most and become the strongest when we allow ourselves to go THROUGH the challenges that life sends our way. In light of this conversation, I am reminded of the following story:
Zig Ziglar said, “You can get everything in life you want if you just help enough other people get what they want.” 
Ask yourself, “What will have the biggest impact on my business over the next year?” The true answer is your mindset. The one characteristic that all top Network marketers share is that they have the abundant mindset. They spend time on it daily. 
