Category: Failure

Failing Has a Good Side

There is an absolute fact that Nothing in life is free. We know a candy bar costs about a dollar. A nice car is easily $30,000. And the cost of success is usually a failure. If you don’t know failure, you will most likely never know success.

We do not set out to have a failure; that would be ludicrous. Nor do we like the idea of failure. Yet failures can happen anyway. You hold a class that no one shows up to learn at. You go sailing in the winds slow halfway through the trip, or worse, you run into squaws. You bet against the Cubs, and they finally won the World Series. Failures happen, and yet they’re not the worst thing to happen to you in life. 

There are many things far more severe and debilitating than failure. When you have a failure, you were trying to do something, and what you learned from the failure will help you do whatever you are doing be better next time around. Think of all the things you do that take you nowhere, and you never learn anything from them.

Think of the person who lives their life in fear, never wanting to try anything because they might fail. They may be living a mediocre life, always staying in line with everyone else who is living in fear of getting out of step. Even sadder, when they leave this earth, their natural talents were never shared, so they were never propagated or left behind.

What’s the worst if you do fail? You get to join the 7 billion-plus of us who have done so already and will continue to do so as we stretch and learn.

Do not be afraid of failure. When you do fail, it means that you’re learning, growing, and are probably on your way to something great.

Thank you for being with me today. I hope to be with you again tomorrow.

Failure: Better Than You Think

To strike out on your own to learn new things is a scary proposition.  Often this is because we are afraid of failure. And I know the fear of ridicule is sometimes intense. Failure is positive, though, because it allows us to take a look at how to accomplish something and find better ways.

Penicillin was found because someone failed to keep the office clean. New continents were found because someone did not understand that they could not sail directly to India. And we have new ways to look from the Earth to the stars because somebody failed to tell a bunch of grad students it could not be done. Failure is a faithful ally on the road to discovering new things.

Others warn us of failure because they mean well, and sometimes just because they are mean.  We need to understand that failure does exist. And we should have a plan for when we find something that does not work correctly. After all, it will not be the end of the road; it is, instead, a starting point for new ideas and discoveries.

Not everyone can find failure, and that means not everyone can find new ways to do something better. When somebody picks on you for finding a problem, smile at them, and remember that there is still hope that they may also find their failure; so that they too may find the solutions they seek.

Remember, each failure you encounter, shows that you are actually moving in a direction. And in not being stagnant, you are one more step closer to finding the answer you seek. After all, how many different light bulbs did Mr. Eddison try before he found the one that worked?

Thank you for being with me today. I hope to be with you again tomorrow.

Failure Is Seldom an Option

Failure is seldom an option.  Yet, it does happen. 

As you start a new position, you need to learn that job and all the ins and outs that go with it. You need to start some projects and actually see them through to fruition. It is good to know what success feels like and how to handle success.

You also need to know what it feels like to fail. You need to know how to pick yourself back up and move on.  You need to either try again and succeed or understand why the failure occurred and how to avoid the failure next time.

The lower you are on the ladder when you fail, the less painful failure will be. The higher you are on the ladder when you fail the far more painful failure will be for both you and others affected.

The better you understand your job, the better you will be.

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