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Embracing
Failure To Succeed
Why Failure Is Good for Success
By SUCCESS
The
sweetest victory is the one that’s most difficult.
The one
that requires you to reach down deep inside, to fight with everything you’ve
got, to be willing to leave everything out there on the battlefield —without
knowing, until that do-or-die moment, if your heroic effort will be enough.
Society
doesn’t reward defeat, and you won’t find many failures documented in history
books.
The
exceptions are those failures that become steppingstones to later success.
Such is
the case with Thomas Edison, whose most memorable invention was the light bulb,
which purportedly took him 1,000 tries before he developed a successful prototype.
“How did
it feel to fail 1,000 times?” a reporter asked.
“I didn’t
fail 1,000 times,” Edison responded. “The light bulb was an invention
with 1,000 steps.”
Unlike
Edison, many of us avoid the prospect of failure. In
fact, we’re so focused on not failing that we don’t aim for success, settling
instead for a life of mediocrity.
When we do
make missteps, we gloss over them, selectively editing out the miscalculations
or mistakes in our life’s résumé.
“Failure
is not an option,” NASA flight controller Jerry C. Bostick reportedly stated
during the mission to bring the damaged Apollo 13 back to Earth, and that
phrase has been etched into the collective memory ever since.
To many in
our success-driven society, failure isn’t just considered a non-option — it’s
deemed a deficiency, says Kathryn Schulz, author of Being Wrong: Adventures in the
Margin of Error.
“Of all
the things we are wrong about, this idea of error might well top the list,” Schulz
says.
“It is our
meta-mistake: We are wrong about what it means to be wrong. Far from being a
sign of intellectual inferiority, the capacity to err is crucial to human
cognition.”
Failure Is
Life’s Greatest Teacher
When we
take a closer look at the great thinkers throughout history, a willingness to
take on failure isn’t a new or extraordinary thought at all.
From the
likes of Augustine, Darwin and Freud to the business mavericks and sports
legends of today, failure is as powerful a tool as any in reaching great
success.
“Failure
and defeat are life’s greatest teachers [but] sadly, most people, and
particularly conservative corporate cultures, don’t want to go there,” says
Ralph Heath, managing partner of Synergy Leadership Group and author of Celebrating Failure: The Power of
Taking Risks, Making Mistakes and Thinking Big.
“Instead
they choose to play it safe, to fly below the radar, repeating the same safe
choices over and over again. They operate under the belief that if they make no
waves, they attract no attention; no one will yell at them for failing because
they generally never attempt anything great at which they could possibly fail
(or succeed).”
However,
in today’s post-recession economy, some employers are no longer shying away
from failure — they’re embracing it.
According to a recent
article in BusinessWeek, many companies are deliberately seeking out those with
track records reflecting both failure and success, believing that those who
have been in the trenches, survived battle and come out on the other side have
irreplaceable experience and perseverance.
They’re veterans of failure. The prevailing school of
thought in progressive companies — such as Intuit, General Electric, Corning
and Virgin Atlantic — is that great success depends on great
risk, and failure is simply a common byproduct.
Executives
of such organizations don’t mourn their mistakes but instead parlay them into
future gains.
“The
quickest road to success is to possess an attitude toward failure of ‘no fear,” says
Heath.
“To do
their work well, to be successful and to keep their companies competitive,
leaders and workers on the front lines need to stick their necks out a mile
every day.
They have
to deliver risky, edgy, breakthrough ideas, plans, presentations, advice,
technology, products, leadership, bills and more. And they have to deliver all
this fearlessly—without any fear whatsoever of failure, rejection or
punishment.”
Reaching
Your Potential
The same
holds true for personal quests, whether in overcoming some specific challenge
or reaching your full potential in all aspects of life.
To achieve
your personal best, to reach unparalleled heights, to make the impossible
possible, you can’t fear failure, you must think big, and you have to push yourself.
When we
think of people with this mindset, we imagine the daredevils, the pioneers, the
inventors, the explorers: They embrace failure as a necessary step to
unprecedented success.
But you
don’t have to walk a tightrope, climb Mount Everest or cure polio to employ
this mindset in your own life.
When the
rewards of success are great, embracing possible failure is key to taking on a
variety of challenges, whether you’re reinventing yourself by starting a new
business or allowing yourself to trust another person to build a deeper
relationship.
“To
achieve any worthy goal, you must take risks,” says
writer and speaker John C. Maxwell.
In his
book Failing Forward: Turning Mistakes
into Stepping Stones for Success, he
points to the example of legendary aviator Amelia Earhart, who set several
records and achieved many firsts in her lifetime, including being the first
female pilot to fly solo over the Atlantic Ocean.
Although
her final flight proved fateful, Maxwell believes she knew the risk — and that
the potential reward was worth it.
“[Earhart’s]
advice when it came to risk was simple and direct: ‘Decide whether or not the
goal is worth the risks involved. If it is, stop worrying.’”
Of course,
the risks you take should be calculated; you shouldn’t fly blindly into the
night and simply hope for the best.
Achieving the goal or at least waging a
heroic effort requires preparation, practice and some awareness of your skills
and talents.
Easing
Into a Fearless Mindset
“One of
the biggest secrets to success is operating inside your strength zone but
outside of your comfort zone.”
“One of the biggest secrets to success is
operating inside your strength zone but outside of your comfort zone,” Heath
says.
Although
you might fail incredibly, you might succeed incredibly — and that’s why
incredible risk and courage are requisite.
Either
way, you’ll learn more than ever about your strengths, talents and resolve, and
you’ll strengthen your will for the next challenge.
If this
sounds like dangerous territory, it can be. But there are ways to ease into
this fearless mindset.
Maintain a
Positive Attitude
The first
is to consciously maintain a positive attitude so that, no matter what you
encounter, you’ll be able to see the lessons of the experience and continue to
push forward.
“It’s true
that not everyone is positive by nature,” says Maxwell, who
cites his father as someone who would describe himself as a negative person by
nature.
“Here’s
how my dad changed his attitude. First he made a choice: He continually chooses to have a positive attitude.”
Reading
and Listening to Motivational Material
“Second,
he’s continually reading and listening to materials that bolster that attitude.
For example, he’s read The Power of Positive Thinking many
times.
“I didn’t
get it at first, so once I asked him why. His response: ‘Son, I need to keep
filling the tank so I can stay positive.’”
Heath
recommends studying the failures and subsequent reactions of successful people
and, within a business context, repeating such histories for others.
“Reward
them and applaud their efforts in front of the entire organization so everyone
understands it is OK to fail.
“So
employees say to themselves, ‘I see that Bill, the vice president of widgets,
who the president adores, failed, and he is not only back at work, but he is
driving a hot new sports car. I can fail and come to work the next day. Bill is
proof of it.’”
Finally,
Heath stays motivated by the thought that, “if I become complacent and
don’t take risks, someone will notice what I am doing and improve upon my
efforts over time, and put me out of work. You’ve got to keep finding better ways to run your life, or
someone will take what you’ve accomplished, improve upon it, and be very
pleased with the results. Keep moving forward or die.”
Editor’s note: This post was originally published in
September 2010 and has been updated for freshness, accuracy and
comprehensiveness.
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