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There are very few stories of success that don't start with at least a few failures along the way. But certainly not everyone who fails succeeds. Failure can easily turn into an insurmountable hurdle that can stop you in your tracks.

So what's the difference between those who let failure stop them from reaching their goals and those who turn failure into a giant success? It has to do with the way they respond to adversity. Here are five ways to turn failure into a giant success:

Looking at someone’s education and background can be helpful when screening job candidates, but the best indicator of who’s the right fit can’t always be found on a résumé. Companies ranging from big names like Pinterest to small startups are conducting culture interviews to build cohesive teams that match the feel of the office—not just the job description.

"Relying on someone’s background can be very misleading; it doesn’t tell the whole story," says Tara Kelly, CEO of the customer experience software provider SPLICE Software. "Our workplace is like a family, and we are always looking for someone who is the right fit."

Culture interviews are part of the SPLICE hiring process, and the process starts with the job ad, which includes quotes from current employees about what it’s like to work at the company. Kelly says she hopes this added insight attracts the right applicants.

The older you get the faster time seems to pass. So instead of reaching the end of your fleeting life and wishing you had done things differently, take some simple steps right now to be intentional about your thoughts and actions.

Time is money.

It's the one asset that we are all given each and every day. Yet many of us find it slips away so easily.

What can you really do to make better use of your time? The solution may be easier than you think. We tend to have the mindset that we have to do more to get more, but that's not always the case. There are many different ways you can manage yourself and your time in order to approach tasks with more efficiency.

By making slight tweaks to your behavior and the way you handle responsibilities, you can actually grow your business without simultaneously expanding your workload. Here are five simple ways to work smarter, not harder.

Just like people aren't born with physical strength, no one is blessed with incredible mental strength at birth. Instead, mental strength is developed over time by individuals who choose to make personal development a priority.

In addition to avoiding the things that could hold them back, mentally strong people create healthy habits that assist them in growing stronger. Here are eight things mentally strong people do every day to strengthen their mental muscles:

In hard times, you need to make tough decisions for the sake of your business. Most importantly, you need the right people by your side. But how do you identify the people who will turn your business around? What are the characteristics of these "A players" that make them so critical?

I learned the hard way when the bubble burst in 2001 and LivePerson, like all other tech companies, was losing clients fast. We were forced to reduce our staff by more than half--from 180 down to 80.

There have been several books written about the subject of happiness including several from Tal Ben-Shahar ("Happier", "Even Happier" and "Being Happy") and Zappos CEO, Tony Hsieh who wrote Delivering Happiness. All great books if you're looking for a deep dive into the subject of happiness. But I came across a quote from the Dalai Lama XIV that really nailed it for me:

Happiness is not something ready-made. It comes from your own actions.

You know that multitasking is a bad idea. You may even know that frequent multitasking shrinks your brain and lowers your IQ. But did you know that, far from saving you time, multitasking cuts your productivity by a whopping 40 percent?

That frightening number comes from Devora Zack, CEO of Only Connect Consulting, and author most recently of Singletasking: Get More Done--One Thing at a Time. In fact, she notes, there's actually no such thing as multitasking. You may think you're taking part in a conference call, writing a report, and texting with your spouse all at the same time, but what your brain is actually doing is switching non-stop among these different activities. That's costing you both efficiency and brain cells.

The problem is, like many things, multitasking may be bad for you but it feels really good. That's because as you switch from task to task, your brain reacts to the feeling of newness with a jolt of dopamine--the same brain chemical that causes heroin addiction.

Fortunately, Zack says, you can get off the multitasking treadmill, and regain your efficiency, not to mention the IQ points you may have lost. Here's how.

One of the big questions in business is this: Are great leaders born that way, or do they practice a set of habits that anyone can learn and practice? The current thinking is that leadership is a set of habits that can be learned by anyone. The more consistent you are in living and applying these habits, the better leader you will become.

There are plenty of possible habits you can adopt to become a great leader, but here are 9 that will get you far along your own personal leadership journey.

If you're not happy with your life, either personally or professionally, take a quick look in the mirror. The problem may not be lack of opportunity, or education, or capital, or connections--the culprit could be you.

The difficulty could lie in what you believe--and what you do.

What do successful people believe and do differently?

Recently I helped a client get ready for an intense conversation with his team. There'd been some big stuff happening in their division, not all of it great. He had a "state of the union" to deliver as well as some requests. His concern was that if he didn't handle it well, he'd create a mess, not have any clean next steps, waste time, and ultimately demoralize the team. He was nervous.

My good friend was having a challenge with her son. There'd been tension for a while and she sensed he'd been dishonest with her. They needed a heart to heart. Her concern was that if she didn't handle it well, she'd create a mess, alienate him, and create even more resistance between them moving forward.

In another land, my colleague's team was rockin' it and he wanted to do something awesome for them. His concern was he wouldn't honor them well enough.

I today am wrapping up a move, throwing my daughter a birthday party, working with clients, and writing to you. I want to make sure that I'm productive AND that everyone feels honored and seen.

Four scenarios -- I'll bet you can plug yourself into at least 3 of them, if not all.

So what to do?

It's so simple. Happy Monday.

Taking lots of breaks might not sound like the route to incredible productivity, but according to tons of research, giving yourself regular breathers is a sure-fire way to get more done. One study showed 20 minutes of yoga could significantly improve brain functioning, another that a quick nap would seriously boost memory, while a third suggested that just shy of an hour of work followed by around a 15-minute pause was the ideal work pattern.

But what if you don't have 40 minutes to nap or even 15 minutes to kick back and reset? If that sounds like you, don't worry. Science has an alternative that even the most maniacally busy entrepreneur can take advantage of. According to a recent study out of Australia, even 40 seconds is enough to refresh your brain, as long as you do the right thing with those seconds.

We talk about happiness as if it were a thing to be discovered and acquired.

But happiness can never be found externally. It is not a possession to be acquired or a set of conditions, but a state of mind.

The happiest people don't necessarily have the best of everything, but they have learned to make the best of whatever they have.

The happiest leaders aren't necessarily focused on success or failure but live by a different perspective--and that outlook makes all the difference.

Here's how they live.

Many things that we value in life are the result of accumulating stuff; experience, wealth, and education all come from adding more to what we have. By contrast, the act of being happy is often more about subtracting things that weigh us down, tie us to the past, or keep us engaged in unhealthy situations and relationships. But letting go is hard. We attach ourselves easily to behaviors and patterns that are comfortable because they are known, even if they limit us and our capacity to succeed and to be happy.

By the way, if you think happiness is an elusive and fuzzy concept, I'll prove to you that it's not by posing this question: If you came back in another life, would you want to be yourself all over again? Yeah, how's that for a benchmark of happiness?

So try this. There are 20 weeks left in 2015. Start focusing on subtracting behaviors that stand in the way of your success and happiness. Here's a list of 20 things that happy and successful people don't do. Pick one for each week and make a commitment to let it go, and then practice the letting go religiously for the week. I promise you'll be not only happier but incredibly more energized and ready to build the future as well.

LinkedIn can make or break your chances of getting an interview — you probably already know this. But just like with your resume, what you leave off your profile is just as important as what you keep on it.

When it comes to the latter, we've given you plenty of tips regarding what should be there — from brilliant summaries to killer headlines that attract recruiters. But today we're talking about the former — all the items you need to leave off. Or, in most cases, remove before you make one more more hiring manager cringe and X out.

I know, that sounds bleak. However, there is a silver lining, and it's that removing these items won't take you more than five minutes.

There is a reason to take vacations. That reason is to simply stop.

This summer I took my first vacation in more than two years. It was not easy. Taking a vacation is a very specific conundrum for the impassioned small businessman. There is no good time to do it. There is no time when it seems there is not a Sword of Damocles looming over our high-risk, very personal business creations. There is no time when we do not need four times as many hours as there are in the workweek. It seems unimaginable to take a true existential furlough from our labor.

Workaholism is a habit. It is an addiction. It needs to be fought each day with tools like meditation, prayer, yoga, and exercise. But it also needs the occasional Big Break.

You probably don't need research to tell you that people are feeling more and more overwhelmed and overscheduled, but if anecdotal evidence isn't enough to make this clear, studies do exist. Americans tell pollsters they struggle to find work-life balance and generally feel like they spend their days on a slightly too fast treadmill scurrying to catch up.

But no worries--this problem has an obvious solution, right? All we need is better time management--get more done, choose and batch tasks more wisely, keep tabs on our to-do list more carefully, etc.

That seems reasonable but it's totally wrong, according to a fascinating article by business psychologist Tony Crabbe that appeared on Quartz recently. The in-depth piece looks at the history of the relationship between work and time (hint: we weren't always so clock obsessed) and goes on to argue that, as we've misdiagnosed what ails us, the prescribed treatment--time management--is actually making our problems worse.

"Time management, we believe, is the solution to our busyness: if we could organize our time better, we'd be less overwhelmed, happier, and more effective. We are completely wrong on all three counts, and it's damaging our lives and our careers," Crabbe writes.

When you want to move up in the workplace, your first instinct might be to ask yourself, “What can I add to my plate to impress people and really prove my worth around here?”

That may seem like a smart question to ponder, but in my opinion, it’s not always the right question to start off with.

Instead, here’s a good place to start: “What can I subtract from my current workload so that I can clear away some muck, free up my time and energy, and start contributing at the highest possible level?”

In other words: “What should I be doing less of around here?”

After working as a psychologist and life coach for over 28 years--mentoring super-achievers across all kinds of industries--what I have observed, time and time again, is that the secret to success isn’t doing more. It’s doing less.

Here is a simple auditing exercise to help you critically examine your work week and decide which tasks to keep--and which you ought to delete.

Life is stressful enough for most of us. Allowing a toxic individual to ravage your immediate environment can cause havoc in your mental well-being, which can lead to physical challenges.

A bad state of mind not only affects your physical well-being but makes it difficult for you to respond calmly under pressure. Ninety percent of top performers are skilled at managing their emotions, so your ability to perform effectively can be affected if you do not adopt strategies that will allow you to deal with toxic people.

I always ask aspiring business people: How do you beat Bobby Fischer, the renowned chess champion of the 1970’s? The Answer: Play him at anything but chess. This excerpt is from the second chapter of Seymour Schulich’s book, Get Smarter: Life and Business Lessons. Schulich is a self-made billionaire.

Think happiness is unattainable? It might not be as out of reach as you think. Read on for three ways you can come closer to happiness every day.

Being a leader is hard. Some people put themselves in a leadership role and others are there by accident or even default. It's unreasonable to expect that all leaders are naturally born. They need support and tools to be successful and bring others along.

My Inc. colleagues and I have seen lots of leaders in action. Some leaders are are just getting by, but others are amazing. We have witnessed several common tools these amazing leaders use to get performance from their teams. Here are some we have seen that work consistently.

If you're introverted (like me), you may find it difficult to connect with people at social gatherings. If you're extroverted, you face a different challenge--your outgoing personality may run roughshod over people you'd like to know better.

Not to worry. There's help for all of us.

At the Reader's Legacy awards last weekend, I had the opportunity to meet with Larry Benet, who is the co-founder of SANG Events, which feature speakers like Tony Hsieh, Tony Robbins, and Jack Canfield.

It's all too common. Agendas conflict, personalities clash. People get hired for their great skills who turn out to have major issues. Whatever the source, when a colleague (or subordinate or boss) is driving you up the wall, it's up to you to figure out how to cope.

Exiling them to a desert island probably isn't an option, but here are six strategies that can help:

It only takes seven minutes to change how you approach your day. Using the routine described below when you get to work will make a world of difference in your productivity, your attitude, your success, and your health. It's like the approach you make to the tee on a golf course. You plan out how you will hit the shot, which is more important than the actual swing. Before you start your day, this routine will provide the right mindset. Will you follow it?

Note: I'm going to call this routine "The Seven," as in, "Did you do your Seven this morning?" Feel free to borrow that term or send me ideas on a better name.