Failure is the only tool we have to know if we are doing something right or doing something wrong. Some will use an economic approach: “If x fails in the market, it wasn’t the right time/place/temperature/year/seasoning…..etc.” This knowledge can be very useful. “I had a job interview and ended up not getting the job.” The next question should be why? Was it them, was it me? Most likely me. Easier to blame them!
Things like traditional schooling, however, do not allow us to experience true failure. If we don’t pass a test, we fail the test and thats it. We let everyone down! Its going in our permanent record……….does this practice reflect any real life experience? Falling flat on your face and getting up again is essential in anything. Read any biography of someone you think is successful, and you may find WAY MORE failure than success.
It is easy to avoid all risk and therefore all chances of failing. However, we can only know by failing what is it we need to improve. Allow yourself to fail and collect the results! It only takes one success to make it, and then all “failures” were simply the journey.
The knowledge that mankind has accumulated over the course of our existence is the result of trillions upon trillions of “failures”. Others failed and it made your life better. Does that mean if you fail a few times, you may make someone else’s life better? Worth trying.
Chris Pearlberg 
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