The Benefits of the Willingness to Fail
Without Failure, There Can Be No Progress
From the time a baby tries to walk and falls down, the child is learning from failures. Failure is not the end, it is the beginning. Only those who recognize failure as a necessary element of success can ultimately reach their goals.
Failure as a Teacher
What does failure teach? It teaches people what doesn't work. By process of elimination and determining what doesn't work, one can stretch the limits of the mind to find what does work. Trial and error have brought the world some of the its most significant developments. Things taken for granted like airplanes, cars, telephones, electricity were all products of success after initial failure.
In school, the causal relationship of effort and achievement is learned. More study means better grades, acceptance to better colleges and as an adult, a better job. It is simple cause and effect. No successful person ever said, "I wish I hadn't studied so hard in school."
Failure as a Motivator
Motivation to succeed often comes from personal failure, or from not wanting to follow the path of someone in life who was not motivated to succeed. Hitting "rock bottom" is sometimes the stimulus for motivation to achieve great things. It is said that when on the bottom, a person can go sideways or up. Failures go sideways. Winners go up.
By recognizing what isn't acceptable in life, people are often motivated to achieve more, be more, take more risks.
Failure and Risk as a Process
Without risk takers, the world would have stopped evolving in the stone age. Somewhere along the line, someone stepped outside the lines, tried something new, risked life and limb to move to a higher level. Many risk takers fail over and over, but the common thread among successful risk takers is that they never quit. They learn from their failures and keep moving forward.
Risk takers are not reckless. The ratio of risk and reward are calculated and fine tuned before risk is taken. In this scenario, when failure ensues, it is simply considered part of an overall process toward success. Most of the people who have successfully reached the peaks of great mountains have only done so after multiple attempts.
Why Risk Failure?
In Take The Risk by world-renowned neurosurgeon Ben Carson, he lays out four questions to determine whether or not a risk should be taken.
- "What is the worst thing that could happen if I take this risk?"
- " What is the best thing that could happen if I take this risk?"
- "What is the worst thing that could happen if I don’t take this risk?"
- "What is the best thing that could happen if I don’t take this risk?"
By asking and answering these four questions, a decision can be made whether or not the worst that can happen is acceptable, and something that one can can move beyond. When going into a risky situation, a positive attitude is essential for eventual success. If doubts and fears overrule hope and optimism, eventual success is much less likely.
By making failure acceptable, fears and doubts can be supplanted with enthusiasm and positivity that can be the motivation to achieve goals both large and small. Small successes bolster confidence, which leads to willingness to take bigger risks, and achieve greater things.
Reaching the Peak of a Mountain Takes Many Tries
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