BizSugar.com › Self-Development › Why Failures Can Be Such Success Stories

To err is human. But to persevere is a feat that often separates the successful from the mediocre.

In business—as in sports, politics, and the arts—many of the greatest and most influential leaders share a history of failure. Automaker Henry Ford and animator Walt Disney both stumbled badly with early business ventures. Early in his career with General Electric (GE), Jack Welch caused an explosion that blew the roof off a building. Not long after taking Apple Computer (AAPL) public, founder Steve Jobs was ousted by the very man he recruited to lead the company.

Psychologists say it's not simply the fact that these people learned from mistakes that led to eventual success. It's also the resilience they displayed in getting past those potholes. Failure can be "informative rather than demoralizing. It tells you what you may need to do to make it," says Albert Bandura, the Stanford psychology professor who in the 1970s pioneered the social cognitive theory of self-efficacy—an inner belief in one's ability to succeed.