Learn To Embrace Failure
Don't Fear Failure
For many of us our time in school helped to cultivate an unhealthy relationship with failure.
In school everything is black and white, pass or fail and you're suppose to avoid failure like the plague.
That works for taking tests but if you are ever trying to create something new or start your own business you will have to learn not to fear failure but to embrace it as a learning experience.
As the story goes, when Thomas Eddison was creating the light bulb it took him over 2000 attempts to get it right.
Someone asked him about all his failures and he said, "I didn't fail over 2000 times, I discovered over 2000 ways not to build a light bulb."
That is the attitude we need to approach our challenges with, when trying to create a new future for ourselves and our families.
Not that you should seek out failure but embrace it as part of the learning process. When you do it becomes a very good thing.
Fail fast and fail forward and learn as you grow.
Recent Comments
40
I agree totally Aaron.
In addition to School, I would add that my experience in the corporate world was similar. There was an ethos of ‘get it right first time’ even though the founder, sometime before 1950, had famously said: “If you want to increase your success rate, double your failure rate.”
In reality, I believe the ‘get it right first time’ had originally been part if the sales and customer support ethos but by the time I joined in 1976 it was a company-wide practice.
:-)
Richard
Thank you Richard! Yes my friend the get it right the first time attitude has become a part of a society as a whole it seems. It's great, of course, if you can get it right the first time but when that becomes your only philosophy it can of course create close mindedness and stagnation. That is a very interesting story how it creeped in from the customer service side. lol Appreciate your input and support as always. Hope you are doing well my friend. How's the move going? :)
Hey Aaron, thanks for asking. The move is going slowly due to the unexpected needs of my wife’s care home. That's life. We’ll get there soon.
:-)
Richard
Well you have a great attitude toward the problem as always my friend! Jack Sparrow would be proud of you my friend. Stay positive and good luck with your move! :)
You are very welcome Claudio! Appreciate your support and input. Hope you have a great end to your week my friend. :)
See more comments
Hi Aaron
Great post!
It's not easy to embrace failures. We have a tendency to get down on ourselves when things don't go according to plan. But I believe we learn more from our failures than we do when things are going smoothly. As you mentioned it's not that we're seeking to fail but to reap the benefits of the mistakes (or so called mistakes. Sometimes it can be a serendipitous occurrence) we make.
Hi David, Thank you very much! I appreciate that. Very good point my friend and very well said. Hope you have a wonderful weekend! :)
Hi Aaron
No problem, Aaron!
Have yourself a great weekend as well!!
Thank you David! I will do my best my friend. :)