Eva Longoria isn't afraid of failure.

The former 'Desperate Housewives' actress isn't a perfectionist and won't be held back from trying to be the best at whatever she wants to achieve.

She said: ''It's not that I don't stumble and get it wrong, I stumble all the time but I think the difference between me and someone else is I'm not afraid of failure.

''I don't care if I fail. Perfectionism prevents progress. People stop themselves because they won't even try.

''You live with fear guiding your life, as opposed to hope, and so you fear failure.

''I'd rather my guiding principle was success, achievement and hope. I've believed this since I was little.

''If I was going to be a cheerleader, I wanted to be head cheerleader. If I'm going to play clarinet, I'll be first chair of the clarinet.''

And the brunette beauty admits she fails ''all the time'' but always learns from her experiences.

She added to Psychologies magazine: ''[I fail] all the time. And every time I've failed, I've grown.

''I know that sounds like a cliche but in Catholicism, we say the tree is being shaken to its foundation, so the leaves fall off and all you're left with are the roots. But the leaves grow again and all you were doing was shedding the dead weight.''