Celebrating Failure: Failure Never Fails. Until You Give Up
Human society judges a person based on their successes. But a study of history and reading between the lines without bias, will showcase what we ignore constantly. We ignore studying “failure” as a topic. It scares us to think about “failure”. We shy away from it. With so much societal pressure to be successful in everything we do, it’s bound to be a negative (and stressful) energy. The attitude towards failure by people around us makes one avoid any prospects of failure. Then we get conditioned to avoid failure. This is more pronounced in Asian countries, especially India - so there is possibly a cultural nuance to this as well.
We have heard this statement many times around us, from leaders of various teams or projects or organisations - “failure is not an option”. What’s supposed to be a war-cry actually brings to fore, far onerous bias towards the idea of “failure”. No wonder that failure seems like a disease or deficiency. The very concept seems to bring us shame and embarrassment. For these very reasons, failures bring us emotional pain.
Imagine a society that celebrates failure; just like it celebrates Diwali, Eid or Christmas.
Then such social ostracisation won’t happen with failures. People would openly speak about what they tried that day, how they failed and what they learnt from the process. Failure is a stepping stone for success. And with every failed attempt, there is an increased learning and renewed commitment towards the journey to succeed. This is evident from many entrepreneurs’ journey.
Why is it scary to fail?
Most of us fear failure, but failure does not prevent success. And conversely success does not assure “no failures ahead”. Actually, failure can lead to success as long as we learn from it. Of course it is a good teacher.
The world that we live in looks at failure as the big “F”. We almost never question someone on why they failed or what they learnt. We pick on them with a vengeance, for having failed. We just don’t judge. We almost pronounce the “doomed” verdict with our societal behaviour.
In fact, it’s a fact that no one person succeeds all the time. Not even that famous Bollywood star or the world famous cricketers or your popular blogger or the head honcho of any iconic brand. If they think they are, then they are just not setting right enough goals to achieve in the first place.
Thomas Edison, maybe the greatest inventor ever, on his multiple attempts to invent the electric light bulb said, “I’ve not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”
Failures allow us to reinvent ourselves. Or even reshaped its commitment and determination to achieve our set-goals. Like many those who failed before like Edison, we need to use that knowledge and experience. Most importantly, it takes enormous emotional effort and a calm mind to continue the oath to the goal.
Like Edison, we need to keep putting that growing knowledge and experience to use, and we're certain to reach our goal. Every adversity, disappointment, and failure carries with it the seeds of success. It just takes a little positive mental attitude and a commitment to keep trying.
Fearing failure is the toughest competitor we would ever face in any of our attempts!
It’s ok to fail
Once you accept failure as a “continuous learning process”, the mental agility to work with failures increases drastically. Disappointments or criticism don’t hold you back any longer.
Why is failure the first step to success? It’s a great process. We fail because we don't have 100% understanding of what’s needed to reach our goal; including the other forces that have an impact on our efforts. Even the most diligent of us or intelligent of us or the competent of us fail, because of sheer bad timing, unforeseen circumstances or whatever countless reasons that could come up suddenly.
Dale Carnegie summed this well : “Develop success from failures. Discouragement & failure are two of the surest stepping stones to success.”
Why is it important to fail once in a while?
Ambitious people tend to set lofty goals and try and achieve them. Failing to do so once in a while helps us test our limits and abilities and keep learning from those attempts.
We gather fresh perspectives from every failure:
We gain new experiences.
When we fail, we experience a wave of emotions that come along with it. And after having lived-through with those, we learn something more about ourselves in the process. This gets us to a “better-you”.
We gain awareness.
Failure gives us the joy of being aware. With this awareness, you can better prepare for failure and anticipate or watch carefully for signs, triggers, and other reasons that might be avoidable or mitigated.
We become more resilient.
Failure teaches us that life is hard, and that being grateful for our life everyday builds a resilience to the negativity around us.
As the famous writer Scott Peck said, “Life is difficult. This is a great truth, one of the greatest truths. It is a great truth because once we truly see this truth, we transcend it. Once we truly know that life is difficult-once we truly understand and accept it-then life is no longer difficult. Because once it is accepted, the fact that life is difficult no longer matters.”
We set ourselves up for growth.
Failure sets the new benchmark for a low especially when we feel we have hit our lowest, that is the best time to see the brighter side that the only way forward is upwards. Growth is easier to achieve after a failure as the burden of matching expectations goes away.
Learning from failures
Your job is to figure out what can be learned from the mistakes you’re making, and then use that knowledge to reshape your further attempts. Failure is not bad, it’s telling you what you need to do to succeed.
Figure out what it is that you’re doing (or not doing) that is making you fail. Go from there. How do you go about fixing that thing so you can move on to the next mistake?
Do it, do it well, and do it often. The more you do it, the less you will eventually have to.
We learn from failure, not from success, so the more failures you find yourself committing, the closer you are to succeeding. Every failure is a step to success.
Ecosystem plays a vital role
Failure or success is a function of time, place and ecosystem.
Their courage and persistence allowed successful leaders to overcome the failures. Rather than focusing on the apparent “catastrophe” that we have landed in, we should analyse our actions and determine what went wrong. Be sure that the next time around we change our behaviour to ensure a different outcome. So, don’t see failure as misfortune. Rather see failure as only a chance to attempt once more.
Most of our celebrated desi global corporate leaders surely got their formal education in India. But they grew up in their careers in other markets and are shining examples of being global corporate leaders. It is these other markets with culture to accept failures and to encourage attempts despite initial failures. We need to create ecosystem that celebrates failures. And not simply brush it under the carpet.
Would have Bill Gates succeeded if he had been in Richmond Road (Bangalore) or Richie street (Chennai) in the 1980s & ‘90s instead of Richmond USA?
