Congratulations, You Failed!

- by Matt Leedham

I decided I wanted to write on this topic the other night, lying fully awake in my bed. I think it was my way of getting back in the saddle. Addressing failure head on to see what comes of it. Maybe I needed a little help to realize that “failure is an event, not a person.” (Chuck Gallozzi).

Then I remembered hearing that interesting story

about Thomas Edison. The light bulb had been invented but was not commercially viable because it lacked the proper filament that would sustain electric light for long periods of time. This was Edison’s greatest contribution – discovering the right solution that would bring electric light to the masses. It is reported by both Edison and other sources that his experiments failed more than 10,000 times. He is quoted as saying, “I haven’t failed 10,000 times. I haven’t even failed once. I have successfully discovered 10,000 ways that will not work.” His point being, of course, that by eliminating the wrong ways to do something only brings you one step closer to figuring out the right way.

Thomas J. Watson, Founder of IBM seems to agree with Edison: “Would you like me to give you a formula for…success? It’s quite simple, really. Double your rate of failure.” Watson goes on to say, “You’re thinking of failure as the enemy of success. But it isn’t at all…you can be discouraged by failure, or you can learn from it. So, go ahead and make mistakes. Make all you can. Because remember, that’s where you’ll find success. On the far side.”

The far side, indeed.

It can feel that way sometimes, can’t it? The far side. For many of us, failure is a tough pill to swallow. Sometimes even the fear of failure is enough to crush your spirit.

“Our doubts are traitors, and make us lose the good we oft might win by fearing to attempt.” - William Shakespeare.

How do you overcome that feeling so that you can learn from the failure and try again? Courage and perspective.

Courage will be addressed in Part 2 of this post on failure. And I hope this post is putting things in perspective for you.

History’s best achievers, not only of great feats but of personal happiness, have failed massively. If you can learn from your experiences, you will be one step closer, my friends.

Be relentless and keep things in perspective.

PS…if you have time, watch this 8 minute video produced by Honda. As you may know, Honda is one of the most respected automotive companies in the world. In the racing community, their engines are top of the line. Think they haven’t failed miserably? Think again.

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