Forget about the consequences of failure. Failure is only a temporary change in direction to set you straight for your next success.

Denis Waitley is an American motivational speaker and self-help author whose work in the late 20th century focused on performance psychology, goal-setting, and resilience. This quotation reflects themes he popularized in talks and books aimed at athletes, business audiences, and personal-development readers: reframing setbacks as feedback rather than as verdicts on one’s worth. While the line is widely circulated in quotation collections and online, it is typically presented without a verifiable date or occasion. It fits squarely within Waitley’s broader message that attitude and interpretation of events—especially disappointment—shape future achievement more than the events themselves.

The quote urges a cognitive shift from fearing failure’s fallout to treating failure as information. “Forget about the consequences” does not mean ignore responsibility; it means don’t let imagined penalties paralyze action. By calling failure a “temporary change in direction,” Waitley frames setbacks as course corrections: evidence that a method, timing, or assumption needs adjustment, not proof that success is impossible. The second sentence implies a developmental view of achievement—success is iterative, built through experiments, errors, and recalibration. The significance lies in its practical optimism: resilience comes from interpreting failure as a step in a process rather than an endpoint.