FAILURE

Thomas Edison tried thousand different materials in search of a filament for the light bulb. When none worked satisfactorily, his assistant complained, ‘All our work is in vain. We have learned nothing.’

Edison replied very confidently, ‘Oh, we have come a long way and we have learned a lot. We know that there are two thousand elements which we cannot use to make a good light bulb.’

The acumen of learning from failure is unassailable, yet it is extraordinarily rare. This gap is not due to a lack of commitment to learning. The real reason is thinking that failure is bad and that learning from it is pretty straightforward: reflect on what we did wrong and avoid similar mistakes in the future. These widely held beliefs are misguided.

First, failure is not always bad. It is sometimes inevitable, and sometimes even good. Second, learning from failures is anything but straightforward. Once we learn from failure, we can persist and come back stronger, more tolerant and disciplined, more successful, more flexible, more willing to take risks and be open-minded, and happier as a result of these experiences!

Rather than be a perfectionist, we must opt to be an optimalist. A perfectionist focuses on the outcome with goals that may be overly grand and unattainable. He is afraid of failure, less of a risk taker, assumes an all-or-nothing approach. The optimalist focuses on both journey and outcome, accepts failure. He sees it as feedback; tends to take risks and steps outside the comfort zone.

We must unite the experiences we learn from various failures and find value or a lesson and satisfaction in a less than perfect performance. It is said that ‘it is only a failure if we don’t learn something.’ We must forget the shame that comes with failure. It is the journey and not just the end result that matters.

The feedback, the challenge, the risk and the resolve
 ‘unite to impact’ lessons that from failure evolve!

                              

- Pravin K. Sabnis

Goa, India.