Failure, Feedback, and Success

I hate failing.

Every sane person should hate it.

Failing a test, failing to win that basketball match, failing to make the sushi dinner look aesthetically pleasant.

With the self-improvement movement lately, I started hearing more about failure being a good thing?

How can it be a good thing when you feel like shit?

Are the self-help gurus lying?

Well, not exactly. Failure is not the problem. However, your mindset surrounding failure is.

The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall. - Nelson Mandela

When you start navigating through the narratives of a failure and a success, you start noticing it’s not all black and white.

Failure and success are not on the opposites of the spectrum, but rather, they share a symbiotic relationship where one feeds the other.

You can look at a failure as a foundational step towards success. There is a high probability you won’t ever be successful without ever failing.

There’s even a correlation: The more failures equals greater chance of success.

Take, for instance, the learning curve on riding a bike. Initially, you might find yourself repeatedly tipping off balance and crashing. After several falls, particularly if they're all to the same side, the realisation dawns that something must change.

"Why do I keep falling to the right? Perhaps I'm not balancing correctly." With this insight, you adjust, attempting to lean a bit more to the left, only to find yourself falling over to this new side.

"Ah, maybe that was too much adjustment." It's a process of trial, error, and recalibration.

This cycle of falling, reassessing, and trying again is the essence of learning from failure.

Success isn't about the frequency of failure; it's about the response to and the lessons learned from each fall.

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Albert Einstein

Creating an environment where failures, and learning from failure, is looked upon as a positive change is essential for success.

SpaceX, for instance, celebrated when their rocket soared kilometres high before exploding - a clear embrace of a ‘successful failure’ as progress.

So, the next time you’re contemplating stepping out of your comfort zone - be it a student role, a challenging task from your boss, or starting a new venture - embrace the likelihood of failure.

You are likely to fail. It’s okay. Let yourself fail. Embrace the failure as a learning experience. Learn from the failure and never make the same mistake again.

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