You Need To Reassess Failure

And Realise It Isn’t Failure At All

Setting pen to paper, or in my case, fingertips to keyboard is a daunting task. As a new writer, what the hell do I write about? Has somebody already addressed my yet-to-be-penned topic, what year is it? WHO’S THE PRESIDENT?

My new laptop computer. Photo by Daniel McCullough (Unsplash)

Lost in a thicket of ideas, I naturally sought some solace in a common practice known as “Googling.” If you haven’t heard of it, Google it. I signed up to a free writing course for beginners extolling the merits of tackling small topics. The theory is that it’s easier to write about a single idea and build on it, rather than try to create something akin to a condensed encyclopedia. Makes sense.

After failing to come up with anything decent (or interesting), I thought, that’s exactly what I’m going to write about — failure.

But why write about failure per se? How about the perception of failure? What if failure didn’t mean failure at all?

Before I go further, I’ll be 100% honest with you and admit that I haven’t researched this. At all. Not a sausage. There might be 1000 articles about failure, I don’t know. I don’t even care. I will let you into a little secret though — I don’t think the majority of us understand what failure really means and what its positive implications are.

Failing to maintain the integrity of crockery. Photo by chuttersnap (Unsplash)

What Is L̶o̶v̶e̶ Failure?

First, let’s take a look at its dictionary definition. According to Dictionary.com:

noun

an act or instance of failing or proving unsuccessful; lack of success:

His effort ended in failure. The campaign was a failure (alright, don’t rub it in).

I’m not saying the dictionary is wrong. It’s not, and for most people, their idea of failure is exactly how it’s described above. If you’re trying to accomplish something — and let’s say for the sake of simplicity that you’re a beginner runner and you’re attempting your first 5 km — and you didn’t make it, you can say you failed.

If you set your heart on running 5 km and didn’t succeed in making the distance (double entendre was intentional, I’ll be bound), you’ll probably feel despondent and possibly a little sad.

Mmmm failure. Photo by Brusk Dede (Unsplash)

But failure is not one-dimensional and if you treat it as a good friend it gives you constant feedback. It teaches you about who you are, the way you do things and it allows you to regroup and rethink as soon as it appears. Tell me again about how it’s a simple manifestation of a lack of success.

Failure also embodies trying. That’s not to say trying always ends in failing. It might not feel like a good outcome but you can’t fail unless you give something a go. Would you rather live your life having never given anything a shot or at least try something new and unfamiliar? It might not even end up in failure (not that that would necessarily be a bad thing). When you do try something new, it’s because you’re curious and courageous and if you don’t take risks, how do you expect to grow?

If any of those qualities make up your personality then you can expect a fair amount of failure but as long as you’re not looking to fail intentionally, it shouldn’t put you off. Be bold!

Failure allows you to iterate. Put yourself in the shoes (this line is delivered with a tilted head sporting a cheeky wink) of the runner again. Perhaps they started too quickly and didn’t pace themselves. Perhaps they ran out of energy as they didn’t eat enough beforehand. Did they get a stitch? Did they warm-up properly? Was it an uphill run? How would a few 4 km sessions influence a second 5 km attempt? The runner could just throw in the towel or they could consider a newer, more thought-out way to achieve their new goal. Recoup, rethink, redo. Gold dust. Thanks, failure!

The Sweet Smell Of Failure

To illustrate this further, you can think of failure as a bit like market feedback. Remember Febreze? It was an odourless air freshener Proctor & Gamble launched in the 1990s to remove bad smells from clothes and furniture. P&G thought it was game-changer but their sales went from bad to worse. The company had already poured a colossal amount of money into the product so their hands were tied. It HAD to work.

They decided to try to better understand the few consumers they had through home visits. One very house-proud woman took P&G’s marketing team around her humble abode. As she proudly led them from one impeccable room to another, they finally entered the living to discover nine cats.

One of the visitors wretched because the smell was so bad. The house owner didn’t even flinch!

And that’s when it clicked. The people they created the product for weren’t even aware of the bad smells they had in their own homes. Using the knowledge of their failed product launch, P&G repurposed Febreze as a finishing touch spray with an added smell. Consequently, sales exploded.

Fetid feline dwelling. Photo by Nathalie Jolie (Unsplash)

Eliminating The Unnecessary

Failure is simply the world’s way of letting you know that your course of action or chosen methodology was erroneous. It lets you eliminate the route or pathway that is not conducive to success and if you didn’t quite understand that, let me rephrase it:

Failure enables you to eliminate, the route or pathway that is not conducive to success.

Ok, so I wrote exactly the same thing. But it is this shift in mindset of the meaning of failure that allows us to look at it through new eyes. Failure is not even failure! It’s feedback.

David finally completed minesweeper on difficult after several unsuccessful attempts. Photo by Ali Yahya (Unsplash)

Perhaps you’re trying to practice a skill at the moment. You may even be trying to build a business. Whatever you’re doing, whenever you encounter some form of failure, try to reframe it as feedback and look at its benefits. It will give you more insight than you could possibly imagine.

If you enjoyed reading this, I’m around on self-improvement Twitter

Thanks,

A friend

Further Reading