To use someone else's catch phrase... "I don't want to get on a rant here, but" what is it about business people that makes them so scared of the word "fail". Yes, I understand that failing in some instances is devastating. When you get a start-up going and your about to make that first profit about the time the economy goes down the drain; that is the kind of failure that would get the biggest optimist in the room to go into the fetal position. Failure is NOT ALWAYS a bad thing. Failure to be heard in the British courts lead to a rebellion from the monarchy, which in turn begot the United States of America. So, failure can be a good thing.
In my line of work, failure can be the most basic building block of growth. Of course I do not want anyone to fail. If failure occurs we can examine what has occurred and devise a plan so that when the situation arises again failure will not occur. "If you do not succeed, try, try again." As children learn to ride bicycles only after falling again and again. We learn to live our lives from that same model.
Maybe it was my education that taught me I should not worry about not being able to achieve every goal the first time. It could be attributed to our society that we are so competitive to achieve everything we can the first time, every time. I'm not saying we should celebrate mediocrity. I'm saying that we should not give up until we can celebrate success. Embrace failure as a means to an end. Don't fear what can be the key to your development as professionals and people.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Ryan,
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree with your blog. One of my favorite quotes is, "Failure is the opportunity to begin again, this time, more wisely." I believe that failure should be seen as an opportunity, rather than a mistake.
My thoughts are that in order to achieve any great success, one must be willing to take risks. Of course, risk taking will sometimes result in failure. Failure should not be viewed negatively though. There is much that can be learned by failing. Also, success wouldn't be so sweet if it was always guaranteed.
I bet it would be quite difficult (if not impossible) to find any highly successful person who could could tell you they had never failed. To me, failure is all about perspective; its about picking yourself back up and learning from what didn't work.