Working as a Project Manager, it is highly probable that one of your project fails sooner or later.  There are always risks that you will try to minimize, external factors that you will not be able to control, or you may just make a bad decision.

I don’t want to be pessimistic.  I just want you to accept that failure is an option, and it may happen to you.  All great leaders and entrepreneurs have suffered failure or rejection.  But what makes a leader a great leader is what they do after failure.  You can deny it and try to fool yourself so that you feel better.  You can blame someone else and don’t accept any responsibility.  Or you can learn from the experience, move on and start your next challenge with more energy and being a better professional.

I heard once:  “It doesn’t matter how many times you fall down, but how many times you rise up”.  An example of this is Steve Jobs.  If you haven’t seen his commencement address at Stanford, I highly recommend it.

And you have to remember that being a Project Manager you are also a leader, which means that rising up will not only benefit you but the whole project team.