How failing sets us up for greatness

Nobody enjoys failing. Whether it’s a small mistake in our day-to-day lives or something bigger that doesn’t go our way, failure isn’t something that anybody strives for. When we’re small children, we learn that failure is part of the learning process - no one knows how to ride a bike immediately, we fall off, get back on and try again until we learn how to stay upright on two wheels. As we move into adulthood and pressure piles on, failing can start to feel like confirmation that we’re not good enough and shouldn’t keep working towards achieving something. 

It’s important to remember we’re not defined by our failures. Failure is inevitable, and even necessary. It can be a stepping stone to success, and is often instrumental in helping us get where we want to be. The most successful people have usually overcome countless setbacks and disappointments before reaching career peaks - Walt Disney was fired from the Kansas City Star because his editor thought that he “lacked imagination and good ideas” and Stephen King’s novel Carrie was rejected by over 30 publishers before someone bought it.

This past year has been incredibly hard for many, and some will have weathered a myriad of professional struggles and failures. But no matter how trying a situation, we can always look back and see how it helped us grow. Here are a few reasons why we shouldn’t avoid failure, but consider it crucial for greatness.

Failure makes us stronger 

Surviving failure helps build our resilience and makes us better equipped to tackle challenges and hardship in the future. It makes us more adept at dealing with change, solving problems and bouncing back from disappointments. Once we get comfortable with failure, we realise that most of the time it’s not the end of the world, and that we can persevere with more insights that we had before, or decide to go in a different direction. The lessons we take from our experiences with failure are what matter most. We need to fail to learn 

When we fail, we gain valuable experience and knowledge that we can apply moving forward. It shows us where there is room to improve, both when it comes to ourselves and the steps we need to take to achieve what we want to. Sometimes, what we learn from failed attempts at something is what ultimately leads to our success. Failure can open us up to new ideas and lead us to better solutions, and crucially, it will show us the avenues not to take. According to a 2010 study by Vinit Desai, assistant professor of management at the University of Colorado Denver Business School, “knowledge gained from success was often fleeting while knowledge from failure stuck around for years.”

We can draw value from trying

Even when our efforts don’t bear fruit the way we intended, the work we’ve put into achieving our goals is worth something. For example, training for a marathon has tremendous benefits even if we end up not being able to complete one - and it makes us more likely to succeed the second time we try. Being able to look back on an experience and recognise how it has contributed to our development is a great skill, and something that we can nurture with practice.

By not failing we limit ourselves

If we’ve never failed, it’s either because we’ve never tried anything new, or because we’ve been extremely lucky - and coasting on luck isn’t sustainable. The biggest successes are usually borne out of taking risks and refusing to listen to naysayers. When we only do what we know will work out of a fear of failure or because of other people’s opinions, we are hampering our ability to innovate and make great things happen. In order to fulfil our potential, we must be willing to take a leap every now and then, and that requires being prepared for the occasional failure. One of the tips I recommend in developing a growth mindset and embracing failure is to treat new projects like an experiment.

Failing makes us better, stronger and more likely to prosper. Although it can be difficult to go through, it happens to all of us - and what we take away from it can make all the difference. Instead of seeing it as something inherently negative, we should think of it as a jumping off point for greatness.

Failing forward

What have been your biggest failures that have taught you invaluable lessons?