Failure

The project was a failure.  He’s a failure. The team failed.  Biting words that rarely elicit a positive response.

Why are we programmed to respond so negatively to the concept of “failure”?  This one’s always puzzled me.  While an ideal world would have every action rewarded with a positive outcome, reality is much different.  In most cases we try two, three, four, or even more things before we get to the right answer.  Sure with experience (i.e. repeated failures) we get much better at avoiding the false starts.  However, each time we fail, we learn; and, hopefully, refine our approach.  In my opinion, failure IS THE KEY to success.  Unfortunately, many folks look at things differently and discourage taking any false steps.  The result is hesitation, doubt, and frustration.  Ironically, if you’d have just “rolled the dice”, adjusted based on the outcome, and moved forward with a new/better approach, you’d probably get to the desired end state quicker and with much less effort.  Thomas Edison said it very well:  “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work”.

Have you failed today or should I say have you grown today?

As always, thanks for the time.