Have you ever tried something and failed at it? Of course you have. I have too. Many times.
Thomas Edison once remarked, “Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.” He should know. It took him 1,000 attempts (or 2,774, depending upon how you count) to invent a working light bulb. As much as he’s known as a prolific innovator, he had seven “epic fails” that you’ve likely never heard about. He understood that You really can learn as much from failure as you do success.
I was reminded of this when I recently rewatched the movie “Apollo 13.” There shouldn’t be any spoiler alerts since the actual event occurred in 1970 and the movie premiered in 1995. It is an amazing story of human ingenuity and dogged determination. But there were two specific quotes that resonated in this current season of my life:
- “Failure is not an option” was a statement made shortly after the incident that suddenly created a life-or-death situation in outer space.
- “A successful failure” was a statement made at the end of the movie, summarizing the valuable lessons they learned.
Those two statements seem at odds with one another. The first implies that failure is bad (in the case of Apollo 13, fatal). The second implies that failure can be a learning opportunity that leads to success.
I doubt there’s ever been anyone whose primary goal was to fail. When they launched something – a new business, relationship, New Year Resolution – their intention was to complete the task. The goal was to succeed, defined in their mind or in a written mission statement. However, using the example of Edison … and myself … failure is inevitable most of the time.
It’s what you do with failure that makes it either a dead-end or a “success.” Whether you can adapt and learn will determine if there is value to the failure. Psychological flexibility, a form of resilience, is “being in contact with the present and acting on long-term goals rather than short-term urges.” In other words, keeping your eye on the prize while stuff happens around you.
The goal is to snatch victory out of the jaws of defeat, either in the moment or upon your next attempt.
The fear of failure often keeps people from trying new things. We should turn that around to instead be learning from failure creates new things.
Being reminded of this, what do you need to (re)try today?
Skip to content
Mark – spot on. One of the things I have hanging by my desk is Thomas Edison’s quote, “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”
In a real simplification of your idea and approach, recall that as humans, we don’t learn when things go right or well. We learn when we make mistakes. Ultimately, to not make mistakes, is to not try.