Montrice's Blog

5 Reasons Why I Love Failure

23 Jan 2011 Comments Off

by montrice in Observations Tags: appreciation, Business, Creativity, Failure, feedback, humilty, instruction, postaweek2011, success, Thomas Edison, Zig Ziglar

It is not failure that inhibits success, it is the fear of failure.  Most never learn to embrace failure. To our demise we’ve learned how to avoid it without analyzing  its cause.   Failure, the capital F, has been a source of shame for many.  I am not advocating to strive for failure or to set low expectations.  Aim high, respect the process knowing failure is part of the formula. I have learned not only to embrace failure, there are 5 reasons why I love it.

INSTRUCTION. It teaches me what doesn’t work.  When I have poured my heart and soul into somthing and it is just WRONG, it is highly unlikely I will repeat that mistake.  Thomas Edison failed about 10,000.00 before having success with the light bulb.  Image if he had stopped at 9,999.  We’d all be in the dark.  Some of us still in the dark because we let failure keep us from trying again.   The failed attempt is but a correction on what not to do if we remain persistent. 

HUMILITY. A long list of successes one after another builds confidence.  Without caution that confidence breeds arrogance. There’s nothing like failure to prevent the superman complex.  The not so subtle reminder that you really DON’T know it all.  Failure corrects and reminds us to be respectful of others regardless of experience, education or status.  You never know from where your help to success will come.

FEEDBACK. It brings me that much closer to success.  It’s million dollar feedback.  Failure and success are Yin and Yang. There is no successful person that does not have a long string of failures.   Einstein, who failed his college entrance exams said, ”It’s not that I am so smart, I just stick with problems longer.”  Failure is just a problem begging for correction.  

CREATIVITY. Creativity lives and thrives at the bottom with raw need.  When you are at the bottom with no options the only way is up.  I find my best creative juice after a big flop.  I am often times grateful for the clean slate.

APPRECIATION. When the body is exhausted, the mind has lost it’s luster and the creative and financial resources are depleted but at the end of the rope you find victory.  There stands the type of  elated appreciation that words can not express.

Failure is a detour, not a dead end street. – Zig Ziglar