Let's Embrace Failure

“I would say that failure is character-building because I don’t know that I wouldn’t have been humbled if I had not experienced some of the things that I experienced,” McKnight says.

That was a quote from one of the panelists from last week's Failure Fest. The event took place during Baton Rouge Entrepreneurship Week (BREW). Its purpose was to have 4 successful professionals talk about their past failures out and open in the public in hopes to reduce the stigma around failure. Below is the write-up that was featured in the Baton Rouge Business Report. 

Eric Dexter was fired from his first two jobs in Baton Rouge. James Llorens failed in his first bid to become chancellor of Southern University. Janet Simmons and HOPE Ministries put a lot of time and money into a venture that failed and had to be scrapped. Carolyn McKnight had a bright idea to raise money while in Dallas, but it crashed and burned when residents opposed it.

Their failures—and, more importantly, the lessons they learned from them and their subsequent successes—were the focal points of Failure Fest this afternoon.

The Baton Rouge Entrepreneurship Week event was held at the Main Library in an attempt to erase the negative stigma associated with failure and show how the lessons gained through failure can ultimately lead to success. This event was sponsored by MetroMorphosis.

In the cases of the four panelists, each said they’ve grown through failure. Dexter has become the director of business development for Civil Solutions Consulting Group. Llorens became chancellor at Southern on his second try (though he was later ousted from the job and is currently president of Cristo Rey Baton Rouge). Simmons and HOPE Ministries shifted gears to another venture and have been successful. McKnight moved past her failure to become head of BREC in Baton Rouge.

“Don’t look on a setback as a failure, but look upon it as an opportunity to reassess yourself,” said Llorens.

While young people today have many more opportunities in the job market than he had, Llorens said, there are also many more opportunities for setbacks and failures.

“I would say that failure is character-building because I don’t know that I wouldn’t have been humbled if I had not experienced some of the things that I experienced,” McKnight says.

Sometimes, the panel said, a success can eventually become a failure.

In McKnight’s case, the failure she spoke of occurred while she worked in the parks and recreation department in Dallas. She was told to find creative ways to raise money to offset budget cuts, so she spoke to a company in Austin that provided fine dining on boats.

McKnight said she thought she could raise $75,000 annually by partnering with the company and was excited to present her idea to constituents and city officials. But what she didn’t realize was that residents around the lake she planned to use had a bad experience with a party barge company 25 years prior and slammed the idea.

McKnight’s story resonated with small business owner Angelia Neyland, who was among the roughly 50 people who attended Failure Fest.

“I think the thing I connected with the most was Carolyn McKnight when she said sometimes you think you have the best idea, but sometimes it doesn’t carry over,” Neyland said. “It could be the best idea, but sometimes nobody wants it.”

In small group discussions about what Baton Rouge can do to erase the stigma of failing, Neyland said the stigma “should be more on not trying, than on trying and failing.”

I'd love to hear from you on what your failures have taught you over the years. What does failure feel like? Can failure ever be good? How?

- Credit to Ryan Broussard from the Baton Rouge Business Report for writing the story and participating at the event. 

Eric Dexter is the director of business development at Civil Solutions Consulting Group, Inc., and the president of Forum 35, a community group of young people dedicated to improving Baton Rouge. He’s also active in the community, serving on boards for the Baton Rouge Area Foundation, Baton Rouge Blues Foundation, and Apex Collegiate Academy.