How Can We Learn from Our Failures?

In Steve Jobs words: “Sometimes life’s going to hit you in the head with a brick. Don’t lose faith”. This very saying is so very true.?Experiencing failures is one of the worst things that we may feel. It fills us with negative emotions and leaves us feeling worthless. This is why people do anything within their reach to avoid failure, even if this means never attempting anything new for rest of their lives.

Despite the negative energy it comes with, failure has its positive side. Experiencing failure can teach us lessons that we wouldn’t have learned otherwise. Some of the most successful people in the world were only able to attain success because of the lessons they learned from their previous failures.

In this article we will discuss five most important lessons that we can learn from our failures:

1. Success isn’t guaranteed

When trying something new, whether that is?applying for our dream job or starting anything new, everyone wants to achieve success. Unfortunately, this desire for success can sometimes be limiting. For instance, some people have always wanted to start their own business but they’ve never done it because they aren’t sure whether they’ll ever be successful. So, they prefer to stick to their job, regardless what it is and how much does it pay.

They get stuck in?analysis paralysis ?and keep waiting for the perfect time, which never comes, unfortunately. Their desire for success actually holds them back from starting anything new in their lives. As?Winston Churchill ?once said: “Success is moving from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm”.

2. Embrace Change

When we go through failure, this is basically the universe telling us that there is something we’re not doing right. For instance, if we fail at work, this failure could be telling us that we didn’t actually didn’t do a good job. Similarly, if our business fails, that failure could be telling us that there are some business factors we did not put into consideration.

As?Anthony Robbins ?once said: “If you do what you've always done, you will get what you've always gotten”. This means that to overcome our failures, we must change something about our approach and adjust our sails if its windy. We have to take a break and evaluate what exactly went wrong, and then decide what changes we need to make to be successful the next time. In so doing, our failure teaches us that the only way to overcome failure is to embrace change.

3. Intrinsic Motivation

For most people, failure dampens their motivation and makes them feel like quitting. For people with the right mindset, however, failure can be a great source of motivation. Basketball legend?Michael Jordan ?is one great example for people who fail. At 15, Michael wanted to be part of his high school basketball team. Unfortunately, his coach didn’t think he was worth being part of the team, especially considering he was 5’10’ and couldn’t even dunk.

He trained as hard as he could, motivated by the pain of not making in the team. Eventually, he earned himself a spot on the high school team and went on to become the best basketball player of all times. This is an example of intrinsic motivation?spurred by failure to attain a goal we’re very passionate about.

4. Failure: Not Final, not Fatal?

When?Steve Jobs ?was kicked out of the company he started in his parent’s garage, it felt like the world had come to an end for him. However, Jobs eventually brought back to be the CEO of a struggling?Apple . He then went on to transform it into the trillion-dollar company it is today. Similarly,?Walt Disney experienced his first failure after being fired from a newspaper for “not being creative enough.” Undeterred, he started a company in his own name, which eventually became a huge success.

There are several other highly successful people who?failed their way to success . What we can learn from their failures is that it is not the end of the road. It is possible to overcome our failures and go on to achieve greater success than we had ever envisioned. However, if there’s one thing, we can learn from the failures of some of the world’s most successful people, it’s that failure is not final, it’s not fatal.

5. Humility is the KEY

As?Bill Gates ?once said: “Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they can't lose”.?Oftentimes, after achieving a series of successes, most people allow the success to get to their heads. It makes them feel invincible, like everything we do was meant to be a success. Unfortunately, this often leads to arrogance. We start making riskier gambles because we believe that nothing can stop us. Ultimately, this sets us up for failure.

It also makes it easier for us to handle things in case we encounter failure in the future. Dealing with failure is a lot harder if we’ve always achieved success in all our endeavors and arrogantly believe that we can’t fail. If we’ve experienced failure, however, we never let success get to our head. Even when things are going well, we know that they could go wrong at any time. This reminds us that we’re human and keeps us?humble .

Wrapping Up

Everyone fails. It is part of what it means to be human — and not a single human is perfect. Whether it’s choosing the wrong career path, taking on more than we can handle, failing to maintain a healthy work-life balance or any other dilemma, failing is an inevitable part of our professional and personal development. However, contrary to popular belief, failing doesn’t have to be a bad thing.

To cut the long story short, always remember that failure is a painful experience that no one wants to go through. The truth of the matter, however, is that failure is inevitable. As long as we’re attempting something we’ve never done before or continue pursuing our dreams, we cannot completely avoid failure. Despite the pain that comes with failure, this is not to say that failure doesn’t have its silver lining. If we pay attention, failure can teach us valuable lessons.

About the Author

Muhammad Sajwani ?is the Founder and Managing Director of?Evolve HR ?which aims at transforming,?enriching and evolving Human Capital of Pakistan,?Evolve HR thrives in challenging assumptions that hinder organisational aspirations, by creating innovative solutions that yield maximum impact, scalability & benefit to a wider base of stakeholders.?As a Business Coach and Organisational Consultant, Sajwani knows how to combine business insights with people insights to transform organisations and put them on the path to growth.?

Also, follow me on?Twitter ?and?Instagram