This week’s Pearl of Leadership Wisdom is on….

Failure

“Fail? I know 3,000 ways not to make a light bulb. Success is just around the corner.” – Thomas Edison

I have been asked by a number of people to discuss failure, and overcoming it.

“F” for Fail….

At school “F” is for fail. Is there anything good about failure? No. Not outside of the la-la land of “without failure I wouldn’t be the man I am today” garbage. There’s nothing good about this miserable little seven letter word.

People experience a failure. For some it is a short step to “I have failed.” Then just another short step to “I am a failure.” Once that mind set is established you are in big trouble.

I reach for my dictionary:

Failure – an event that did not produce the desired outcome.

What? Surely some mistake! There’s nothing in this definition about you being a worthless failure who shouldn’t waste your time striving for anything.

The problem is……

….. we judge ourselves. And this is a killer of self-confidence. A killer.

So the only really bad thing about failure is when you personalise it and turn it into a defining character trait of yourself or those around you. This is your choice. Choose to NOT do it. Give yourself and those around you a break. Where would we be if everyone was paralysed by fear of failure? Would things be better? There wouldn’t be a light bulb in your cave.

Are you experienced?

Failure is an outcome you didn’t want. Nothing more. It’s not a character trait. It’s not in your DNA. It’s about events and outcomes.

As always, the difference between people is how they react to events. And there’s really only two choices – give up or try again. Look up at the light bulb burning brightly above you, or its tubular offspring. You’ll not be surprised to learn that my advice is to try again and again until you have a different experience….success.

Until next time……