8 Q% %% Inlerhome 42 tq +999 Kw 2 % I p + 4 613 = 6A 4 1% (NAPSA)—Here’s an inspiring thought: Everyone fails at some point in his or her lifetime. Fail- ure simply happens. But does that have to be something to fear and avoid? Or is it, maybe, one of the secrets to success? One major car company knows a little something about both success and failure. On Honda’s golden anniversary in the U.S. this year, the companyreflected on what has madeit successful and howit learns from failure. In a recent documentary film that becamean instanthit on the Web, the company shared the fact that failure has been a key to the company’s success. Over the 50-year history of the company in America, Honda associates have embraced new challenges and in doing so have taken risks, made mistakes, questioned ideas generally accepted as common sense and, at times, experienced failure. These failures can be found in any numberof aspects of the business, from racing to product design to engineering and more. It has been the willingness to allow failure that has enabled the people that make up Honda to stretch themselves and deliver innovation—becoming the first automaker to meet the U.S. Clean Air Act without a catalytic converter (Civic CVCC 1974), becoming the first Japanese automaker to design and build cars in the U.S., producing the first hybrid car for sale in the U.S. (Insight, 1999) and more. Even failure can be part of the road to success. One major motor vehicle manufacturer, which started in a storefront in 1959, is a good example. The founder of Honda Motor Company believed that “successis 99 percentfailure.” How can failure lead to achieying success? Learn from it and make something positive out of it by addressing what happened and identifying what can be learned from that experience. The willingness to fail is a tough hurdle. If something doesn’t work thefirst time, but does on the fifth, then were those failures or part of the path to success? As Thomas Alva Edison, the inventor of the lightbulb, once said, “Manyof life’s failures are experienced by people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.” Failure can be frightening, but it’s a necessary element of success. Need a little inspiration to empower you? Visit dreams.honda. com or, to learn more about Honda’s 50 years in America, visit corporate.honda.com.
