“It’s fine to celebrate success but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure.” ~Bill Gates
Most people think failure is a bad thing to be avoided. It’s to be run away from and hidden lest its shame somehow indelibly stain us.
We even fear the very prospect of failure, so hesitate when the opportunity arises to try new things.
And truth be told, failure just does not feel very good at all. In fact, it can feel terrible, something like getting slammed in the face with a shovel. We also worry that our failures will prove our worst fears, that you simply suck!
To Fall is not to Fail. But to Adopt the State of Having Fallen is
Failure is part of the learning experience. It is a powerfully relevant education concentrated into a relatively small moment in time.
And all education is positive. Education is an investment that requires an expenditure, for sure. We all know that education does not always come cheap. But it’s still an investment, not a loss, that will eventually pay handsome dividends if used wisely. And that, in fact, is a step forward rather than the backward step failure often seems to be.
Failure’s New Identity
Perhaps failure should be given a new name to help us recognize its true value, especially when we feel the shovel slam us against the wall. Perhaps “Advanced Accelerated Training” or “Intensified Learning” or “Enhanced Potential Investment Strategy”?
Or maybe we should just start looking at failure for what it really is: an opportunity, as Thomas Edison once famously put it, to “know a thousand ways not to make a light bulb.”
Have you failed a thousand times in some part of life? Great! Now you know a thousand ways not to treat a spouse or run a business or speak to others or spend your time or live your life.
And that’s a pretty cool way to look at it, if you ask me.
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Hi, Ken!
I’ve always thought that viewing failure as an opportunity to grow and learn is the way to go. I just hate to see people who are so hung up on the idea of failure as something terrible and becoming so afraid to try that they never experience anything new. It takes courage, though, to give anything a try and really focus on the process, rather than the outcome. Good thoughts here.
Lisa recently posted … Happy Birthday, Ten Things of Thankful!
When you fail, you grow. Most people try too hard not to fail in my opinion.
“if you have never failed, you have probably never lived”
– Martijn Nanne
Hi, It has never failed to strike me that whenever i read your posts, I always feel enlightened. Great post, Thanks for sharing.
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