Success Quote by Denis Waitley

Waitley’s line reads like a permission slip for ambition in an anxiety economy. The imperative “Forget about the consequences” isn’t really asking you to become reckless; it’s trying to disarm the mental math that keeps people timid: the catastrophic movie we run about embarrassment, lost status, wasted time. By commanding amnesia about fallout, he targets the emotion underneath procrastination, not the logistics.

The real sleight of hand is how “failure” gets rebranded. It’s not defeat, not a verdict, not a public mark on your character. It’s “only a temporary change in direction,” a phrase that steals the sting by turning an event into a navigational adjustment. That metaphor matters: direction implies agency. You’re still the driver, still moving, still pointed toward an eventual destination called “success.” Even the word “set you straight” carries moral undertones, implying failure isn’t just informative but corrective, like a stern coach who cares.

Context helps explain why this kind of rhetoric has such staying power. Waitley belongs to the late-20th-century self-improvement tradition that flourished alongside corporate culture and motivational speaking, where resilience is both a personal virtue and an economic necessity. The subtext is quietly disciplinary: if failure is merely rerouting, then stopping isn’t an option, and despair becomes a kind of refusal to learn.

It works because it offers emotional triage. It doesn’t promise you won’t fail; it promises failure won’t get the last word.