9 Books About Failure That Will Get You Back On Your Feet

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One of the saddest realities of life is failure; but the sooner we accept that, and realize that failure is not the end of things, the better!

Our mindset about failure determines how we bounce back. In his book entitled Learned Optimism, Martin Seligman explains that people who see failure as permanent are in fact more prone to depression and anxiety.

In contrast, the people who viewed failure as temporary were more easily able to get up from the ashes and move on to succeed.

Best Books to Help You Overcome Failure

If you’ve recently experienced a debilitating failure, reading inspiring books to help you move forward. Here, we’ve listed some of the best books to help you get over the bump and take steps towards success:

**1. How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big by Scott Adams**

Written by the creator of the Dilbert comic strips, this book shares the author’s many failures, as well as the game plan that helped him rise above the turmoil. He also explains how studying what others did to succeed can give you the strategies and tricks that can work for you.

**2. Adapt: Why Success Always Starts with Failure by Tim Harford**

Tim Harford shares a new approach for solving your most pressing problems. Whereas we normally wait for leaders to give us an action plan to solve problems, Harford presents the idea that expert opinion and ready-made solutions are not always your best bet. Instead, you must learn to adapt.

**3. Failing Forward: Turning Mistakes into Stepping Stones for Success by John Maxwell**

In this book, leadership guru John Maxwell shares the secret of overcoming failure, and the power to use it as a stepping stone to learn lessons from it. This is the secret that separates average people from those who succeed.

4. Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol Dweck

Carol Dweck, a world-famous Stanford University psychologist, expounds the power of developing the right mindset to set yourself up for success. She demonstrates how the way you think influences your chances of success in just about any area of life. If that’s true, you need to read this book to change the way you think as soon as possible!

**5. The Value of Failure by Shane Lester**

This unconventional book takes a look at the nature of failure to help you pivot and get back on the right track. Although we can’t prevent failure a hundred percent, the way we perceive and respond to failure determines how we recover and eventually, succeed.

**6. The Obstacle is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph by Ryan Holiday**

Inspired by the ancient Greek principle of stoicism, Ryan Holiday explores the idea that focusing on things you can control can help you turn every obstacle into a chance of getting better, tougher, and stronger. Using real-life examples, he shows how many of the world’s most successful people have used this principle to overcome seemingly impossible situations.

**7. Spartan Up!: A Take-No-Prisoners Guide to Overcoming Obstacles and Achieving Peak Performance in Life by Joe De Sena**

The main force behind the Spartan Race, Joe De Sena has overcome his own set of obstacles using a very simple but powerful philosophy: committing to a goal, putting in the work, and getting it done.

**8. Rejection Proof: How I Beat Fear and Became Invincible Through 100 Days of Rejection by Jia Jiang**

With many of us crippled by our fear of rejection, this is a must-read! Jia Jiang arrived in America with the dream of business success. But after his dream was crushed by rejection, he realized how much his fear of rejection itself was the obstacle he needed to conquer. This led him to pursue his now-famous experiment, “100 days of rejection,” where he intentionally sought opportunities to be rejected every single day.

**9. Very Good Lives: The Fringe Benefits of Failure and the Importance of Imagination by J.K. Rowling**

We now have the chance to hear very inspiring speech that J.K. Rowling gave at Harvard’s commencement exercises in 2008. She looks at the importance of knowing how we can embrace failure, and how to use imagination to improve our own lives and that of others.

Reading Books About Failure

Reading books about failure and how other people overcame it is a great way to inspire yourself to think differently about the negative experiences you’ve endured in life.

If you have recently experienced a heart-breaking failure, we encourage you to get back up, get your hands on one of these books, and push yourself to move on with life!

Did you find this post helpful? Let us know in the comments below!

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Yen Cabag

Yen Cabag is the Blog Writer of TCK Publishing. She is also a homeschooling mom, family coach, and speaker for the Charlotte Mason method, an educational philosophy that places great emphasis on classic literature and the masterpieces in art and music. She has also written several books, both fiction and nonfiction. Her passion is to see the next generation of children become lovers of reading and learning in the midst of short attention spans.