Success is sometimes accidental.

"Sometimes, success is a total accident."  When I heard someone repeat this, I was a little taken by surprised.  "What's he talking about?" I thought as he went on to explain.  It comes down to the idea that sometimes, we find success by accident.  

This doesn't mean that we should go through life without a plan or hoping to stumble upon success, but rather that we should always analyze the situation, be it success or failure, and ensure that we are learning from it.  There is no rule that we can only learn from our failures, only our own ignorance that causes us to think successes must be a result of only our intentional efforts.

When we succeed, it is sometimes due to factors we do not suspect.  Regardless, we should always look to the experience and learn from it.  Relationships might succeed because of our partner's traits rather than our own.  Business ventures might succeed thanks to an unforseen competitive advantage rather than our "better mousetrap." A team might win because the other team drops a pass.  A business might succeed because an employee is superb, even thought the manager is terrible.

It doesn't matter what causes the success.  What matters is that we identify what causes that success or negates our failures and learn from that.  I'm reminded of McDonald's introduction of the Filet-O-Fish sandwich.  This sandwich is one of McDonald's top sellers by accident because someone figured out that Catholics need a no meat alternative on Fridays.  

The best way to get skinny is to find what skinny people do and do more of that.  The best way to be wealthy is to find out what wealthy people do and do more of that.  Find out what makes something successful and do more of that!

The point is, if you can determine what causes it, always learn from failure.  Always learn from success.  Keep learning.  KEEP THINKING!!!