Carpe Failure!

“Success may be the kindest teacher, but failure is a very efficient one.” 

This quote has always stuck with me. 

How many times have you succeeded at something and then when asked how you did it, you struggled to explain the reasons for your success because, frankly, you weren’t exactly sure. On the other hand, if you were asked to reflect upon a failure and the mistakes you made that contributed to that failure you could probably go on in great detail.

We all cringe at the idea of failing. We avoid it like the plague. It’s not surprising really. We’re conditioned at a young age that being wrong is a failure. Schools and jobs stigmatize mistakes. We’re taught to “color within the lines” or risk negative repercussions.

But the reality is, we’ll never know what doesn’t work if we’re not willing to risk being wrong.  We’ll never come up with anything original or innovative. This is the only way we can break new ground and generate new ideas. Making mistakes and learning from them is how we improve. I believe we need to make a conscious effort to change our mindset about failure.

Being willing to fail intelligently and learn from it, particularly in a 21st century economy, is the only way you will ever know how good you can be.

..This much I know.

-Jeanine

Discussion about this post

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *