I have never seen any failure in my life – McDan’s answer to a question years ago
The Chairman of the McDan Group, Dr. Daniel McKorley, may be a successful man but that is not to mean that he has no worries in his life.
According to him, while there are such things in his life, failure is not the one thing that scares him the most.
Instead, as he wrote in his book, “The Path of An Eagle, Despair, Hope & Glory,” the future and all the uncertainties it comes with is the thing that scares him the most.
Explaining further, he said he does not fear failing but he is rather inspired to work harder because of the unknown; the future.
He also added that for him, failure is rather a fuel to work better and harder.
“What scares me most in life is not failure at any given project, but rather the uncertainties of the future. I am never afraid to fail, rather, I fear the unknown and that pushes me to work harder and harder. Failure rather gives me encouragement. It teaches me life lessons. Sometime ago, someone asked me what the greatest failure in my life was. I told him, ‘Honestly, I have never seen any failure in my life.’ I gave that reply because I see those things people call failure as opportunities to learn new lessons in life. It is these lessons that make me strong.
“Sometimes, an unforeseen incident could get hold of you and throw you off balance. We usually put in measures to provide security, both physical and financial, for our businesses, but the unexpected can always happen, sometimes defying every security arrangement we might have put in place. This is my greatest fear,” he explained.
McDan also expressed worries over the attitudes of Ghanaians that have robbed the country of enough billionaires, or successful business people.
He also urged people to set very high targets for themselves in life.
“I will tell you what fear of failure does to people: it makes them set low standards for themselves. In some cases, it makes them even refuse to venture into anything new at all. Our society unfortunately is among those in which people entertain fears so much. Some fear to take the risk of starting new things while others fear to set high standards. Many a business owner even fears to raise the bar. They think of the stress they would have to go through in order to reach higher targets. This is why we do not have billionaires in this country. People set mediocre targets and are happy when they meet them. When the bar is low, it does not challenge you much. When we set low standards, we drag our feet on our way to achieving them.
“I am definitely not afraid to set high standards for myself so I set the bar so high that I get bruises when I jump them. The higher your goals, the harder you strive to achieve them,” he added.