LeadershipJot.com

One of the more popular pages on this blog is the article I wrote “3 Step for How to Respond to Failure.”

Failure

Failure is a difficult topic for many people. One fellow blogger, Ron from The Road Map, wrote a comment on the article that “So many times we just shutdown and struggle to learn from the experience.” That’s so true. Failure for some can be devastating. It can be paralyzing. But does failure always have to bring about an end?

Leadership quote about failure from Thomas Edison:
“Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.”

Failing Forward

I first read the quote from Thomas Edison in the book Failing Forward by John Maxwell. John takes the position that everyone will encounter set-backs on the journey to success. The difference between those who succeed and those who do not is how they respond to set-backs and failure.

Learning

A big portion of life is spent learning. There’s the old saying, “Live and learn” and those who try to encourage repositioning by saying, “learn and then live.” The most important thing to remember is that you still have to learn – create a lifetime habit of learning.

I remember an old chaplain from the Army, Major Frye (no relation to me). Who talked about how glad he was when he was finishing college, because it meant he would not need to spend a lot of time reading and learning the materials for classes. But soon after college, he realized that he was spending more time reading and learning for his job. He had to research, analyze, critically assess, and write about many topics on the job. He realized that living was a journey of learning. Once he learned to embrace learning, his attitude changed and he started to enjoy it – he created a lifetime habit of learning.

Learning from Failure

The best way to respond from failure is to learn from it. I must strongly emphasize that I do not mean to dwell on failure for that could lead to the paralyzing effect and, frankly, regrets are waste of time; you cannot change the past. You can change the future. If you learn from your failures and create a roadmap for how you would have done things differently, you would then have a plan to guide you through similar situations in the future.

Committing to not Fail

That last part that I would like to touch on is commitment and perseverance. I wrote an article title “3 Facets of Commit” and laid out three key considerations for commitment. A quote that is commonly attributed to Thomas Edison is, “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” This quote speaks a lot about commitment and perseverance. It also speaks volumes about learning. You don’t try the same thing over and over again and hope for different results, you learn what doesn’t work, make adjustments, and try again. When you make a commitment and persevere, you learn how to succeed.

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