ROLES OF FAILURES.

WHAT ROLE DOES FAILURE PLAY IN SUCCESS?

You will not succeed unless you are willing to fail.

Too many people believe the process of achieving success is supposed to be easy. The great American inventor Thomas Edison observed that attitude among people. And this is how he responded to it:

Failure is really a matter of conceit. People don’t work hard because, in their conceit, they imagine they’ll succeed without ever making an effort. Most people believe that they’ll wake up some day and find themselves rich. Actually, they’ve got it half right, because eventually they do wake up.

Each of us has to make a choice. Are we going to sleep life away, avoiding failure at all costs? Or are we going to wake up and realize this: Failure is simply a price we pay to achieve success.

FAILURE IS NOT . . .

If you can change your perspective on failure, it will help you to persevere—and ultimately achieve your desires. So how should you judge failure? By taking a look at seven things failure is not:

1. PEOPLE THINK FAILURE IS AVOIDABLE . . . IT’S NOT

Everybody fails, errs, and makes mistakes. You’ve heard the saying “To err is human, to forgive divine.” Alexander Pope wrote that more than 250 years ago. And he was only paraphrasing a saying that was common 2,000 years ago, during the time of the Romans. Things today are the same as they were then: if you’re a human being, you’re going to make mistakes.

You’re probably familiar with Murphy’s Law and the Peter Principle. Recently I came across something called “Rules for Being Human.” I think it describes well the state we’re in as people:

Rule #1: You will learn lessons.

Rule #2: There are no mistakes—only lessons.

Rule #3: A lesson is repeated until it is learned.

Rule #4: If you don’t learn the easy lessons, they get harder.(Pain is one way the universe gets your attention.)

Rule #5: You’ll know you’ve learned a lesson when your actions change.

You see, writer Norman Cousins was right when he said, “The essence of man is imperfection.” So know that you’re going to make mistakes.

2. PEOPLE THINK FAILURE IS AN EVENT . . . IT’S NOT

Growing up, I thought that success and failure came in a moment. The best example I can think of is taking a test. If you got an F, it meant you failed. But I’ve come to realize that failure is a process. If you flunk a test, it doesn’t mean you just failed a one-time event. The F shows that you neglected the process leading up to the test.

Failure is like success. It’s not someplace you arrive. Just as success is not a single event, neither is failure. Success or failure comes from how you deal with life along the way. Truly, no one can conclude that he’s failed until he breathes his last breath. Until then, he’s still in process and the jury is still out.

3. PEOPLE THINK FAILURE IS OBJECTIVE . . . IT’S NOT

When you err—whether you miscalculate crucial figures, miss a deadline, blow a deal, make a poor choice concerning your children, or otherwise fumble a ball—what determines whether that action was a failure? Do you look at the size of the problem it causes or the amount of money it costs you or your organization? Is it determined by how much heat you have to take from your boss or by the criticism of your peers? No. Failure isn’t determined that way. The real answer is thatyou are the only person who can really label what you do a failure. It’s subjective. Your perception of and response to your mistakes determine whether your actions are failure.

Did you know that entrepreneurs almost never get their first business off the ground? Or their second? Or their third? According to Tulane University business professor Lisa Amos, the average for entrepreneurs is 3.8 failures before they finally make it in business. They are not deterred by problems, mistakes, or errors. Why? Because they don’t see setbacks as failure. They recognize that three steps forward and two steps back still equals one step forward. And as a result, they overcome average and become achievers.

4. PEOPLE THINK FAILURE IS THE ENEMY . . . IT’S NOT

Most people try to avoid failure like the plague. They’re afraid of it. But it takes adversity to create success. Basketball coach Rick Pitino states it even more strongly: “Failure is good,” he says. “It’s fertilizer. Everything I’ve learned about coaching I’ve learned from making mistakes.”People who see failure as the enemy are captive to those who conquer it. Herbert V. Brocknow believes “the fellow who never makes a mistake takes his orders from one who does.” Observe any highly successful person, and you’ll discover a person who doesn’t see a mistake as the enemy. That is true in any endeavor. As musicologist Eloise Ristad said, “When we give ourselves permission to fail, we at the same time give ourselves permission to excel.”

5. PEOPLE THINK FAILURE IS IRREVERSIBLE . . . IT’S NOT

There’s an old saying in Texas: “It doesn’t matter how much milk you spill as long as you don’t lose your cow.” In other words, mistakes are not irreversible. Keep everything in perspective. The problems come when you see only the spilled milk and not the bigger picture. People who see failure correctly take it in stride.

Mistakes don’t make them want to give up.
Success doesn’t make them think that they are set up.

Every event—whether good or bad—is just one small step in the process of living. Or as Tom Peters says, “If silly things were not done, intelligent things would never happen.”

6. PEOPLE THINK FAILURE IS A STIGMA . . . IT’S NOT

Mistakes are not permanent markers. I love the perspective of Senator Sam Ervin Jr. He remarked, “Defeat may serve as well as victory to shake the soul and let the glory out.” That’s the way we need to look at failure.

When you make mistakes, don’t let them get you down. And don’t let yourself think of them as a stigma. Make each failure a step to success.

7. PEOPLE THINK FAILURE IS FINAL . . . IT’S NOT

Even what may appear to be a huge failure doesn’t need to keep you from achieving. Take a look at the story of Sergio Zyman. He was the mastermind behind New Coke, something that marketing consultant Robert McMath sees as one of the greatest product failures of all time.¹Zyman, who successfully introduced Diet Coke, believed that CocaCola needed to act boldly to reverse its twenty-year market decline against its rival Pepsi. His solution was to stop offering the drink that had been popular for nearly a hundred years, change the formula, and offer it as New Coke. The move was an abysmal failure that lasted seventy-nine days and cost the company about $100 million. People hated New Coke. And it caused Zyman to leave the company.

But Zyman’s problems with New Coke didn’t keep him down. In fact, he doesn’t even see them as failure. Years later when asked if it was a mistake, Zyman answers, “No, categorically.”

A failure? “No.”

A blunder, a misstep, a bust? “Another word between bust and, uh, something else,” he replies. “Now if you say to me, ‘The strategy that you guys embarked on didn’t work,’ I’ll say, ‘Yeah, absolutely it didn’t work. But the totality of the action ended up being positive.’” Ultimately, the return of Coca-Cola Classic made the company stronger.

Zyman’s assessment was confirmed by Roberto Goizueta, the late chairman and chief executive of the Coca-Cola Company. He hired Zyman back at Coca-Cola in 1993.

“Judge the results,” said Goizueta. “We get paid to produce results. We don’t get paid to be right.”

EMBRACE FAILURE

How can you help yourself learn a new definition of failure and develop a different perspective concerning failure and success? By making mistakes. Chuck Braun of Idea Connection Systems encourages trainees to think differently through the use of a mistake quota. He gives each student a quota of thirty mistakes to make for each training session. And if a student uses up all thirty? He or she receives another thirty. As a result, the students relax, think of mistakes in a whole new light, and begin learning.

As you approach your next big project or assignment, give yourself a reasonable mistake quotient. How many mistakes should you expect to achieve? Twenty? Fifty? Ninety? Give yourself a quota and try to hit it before bringing the task to completion. Remember, mistakes don’t define failure. They are merely the price of achievement on the journey toward success.