Failure Is Just Development In Disguise
Like most ‘self-critical over-achievers’, I have, in the past - because I now like to think of myself as a happy ‘over-achiever’ - done my fair share of kicking myself when I’ve made a mistake, or wallowed in the sometimes excruciating after effects of putting my foot in it, feeling despondent when things didn’t work out how I wanted them to.
And over the last three years as I’ve transitioned from a successful TV career to setting up my own executive coaching business there has been a lot of trial and error and quite a bit of putting lots of energy into something only to see the result seemingly fall flat.
But in that journey, I’ve developed new wisdom, I’ve realised that even when things didn’t fly straight away, those things still had wings elsewhere, further down the line or gave birth to new chicklings in due course.
What I’ve realised is this: Failure is just development in disguise.
What do I mean?
Just because something doesn’t work the first time, doesn’t mean it’s no good. It might be timing, it might be not enough people hear about it, it might be many factors outside of your current control. So understand all those reasons, adapt accordingly if necessary and try again.
Most ideas are worth iterating and re-iterating. It’s called developing! I just saw Apple will no longer be producing the iPod. Well, take heart, they created something, it worked for 20 years, then something else got developed that worked better because the world had moved on.
Everyone who is truly successful has experienced failure in their career often epic failure, think of Steve Jobs who was forced to leave Apple before triumphantly returning years later when everything he touched turned to gold, including the iPod. Arianna Huffington's second book in her 20s was rejected by 36 publishers, but she kept going and is now an internationally successful author and publisher with 15 books to her credit. Or James Dyson who developed more than 5,000 prototypes before pitching his vacuum to British retailers who still rejected it until he took his product to Japan and discovered global success.
Successful leaders learn from their mistakes. Thomas Edison, one of the greatest innovators of all time famously said: “I have not failed 10,000 times, I have successfully found 10,000 ways that will not work.”
Failure can be a way of learning what you don’t know enough of yet and give you a clear idea of what to work on. If you don’t get a role because someone else had more experience than you then bingo, you have a clear focus: Get the relevant experience.
Failure can just mean one door closing and another one opening. When you think back, how different would your life be if you’d always got what you wanted when you wanted it? You wouldn’t have had the same journey or ended up in the same place. How many times have you said: “Thank Heavens that didn’t happen, I would have been miserable.”
So, I think we should develop a different perspective on failure. Don’t think of it as a negative. Think of it as a natural part of development and growth. Expect it, embrace it. If you understand the bumps, the ups and downs, the twists and turns as part of the journey then it won’t feel so painful.
The next time you ‘fail’ aka ‘develop’, ask yourself:
What’s important to me in this experience?
What am I able to take-away?
What am I learning?
How do I want to develop from here?
What is opening up to me as a result?
Have courage, we learn as much if not more from our so-called failures than we do from our successes. Think of most Hollywood movies - the protagonist has a tough time somewhere in the story but when all the chips are down that’s when they learn the most and find the most strength.
As James Dyson put it so well: “Enjoy Failure and learn from it. You can never learn from success.”
Tracy
Tracy Forsyth is an executive leadership coach and Founder of Fast Track to Fearless which helps high-potential executives conquer self-doubt and achieve their fullest potential.
