The Positive Effects of Failure

Notwithstanding the negative connotation of failure and adversity, experiencing failure can actually be a positive point of growth. As stated by Albert Einstein “Failure is Success in Progress” As a matter of fact failure is the key to success. Some of the lessons we learn from failure are indispensable for our route to success. Embracing adversity, rejection, and temporal setbacks is nature’s way of preparing ordinary people for extraordinary work in life. Adversity leads to what is called Post-Traumatic Growth (PTG) it is a theory that explains the transformation that occurs after a traumatic event. It was developed by psychologists Richard Tedeschi, Ph.D., of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and Lawrence Calhoun, Ph.D., in 1990, and holds that people who endure psychological struggle following adversity can often see positive growth afterward. Below are some of the positive impacts of failure.?

1) Failure Teaches Lessons.?

As it is always said experience is the best teacher. The lessons we learn from failing are hardly ever forgotten because of the ridicule and mockery that we are subjected to by relatives and friends after a temporal setback. In our daily life learning what to do is important. The personal bankruptcy laws of the United States embody the positive potential of failure by allowing individuals the room to right themselves, learn from their mistakes, and move on.

?2) Failure humbles us and Keeps us Hungry.

Failure has a special way of provoking and motivating us to stay hungry and humble. When we attempt something and failed the first time, the reaction we get from our peers spurs us to stay humble. It also makes us to be hungry for success to prove them wrong. People who know from experience that fortunes can be lost, that competitors never sleep, that downsizing happens, and that every market boom can go bust tend to be more highly driven and much more intentional.

3) Failure Strengthens Our Support System.

When we fail, we unconsciously send out flares to those who matter most: friends, family, and close colleagues who can offer assistance or simply lend a sympathetic ear. The process strengthens our support system and builds a network of resources to help us succeed subsequently.

4) Failure teaches us to become efficient mentors. ?

The most qualified and efficient teachers are those who have tested failure and conquered it. They are the most qualified teachers because they have been through it all and know how to navigate their way when they encountered temporal setbacks. A large part of effective mentorship is helping anticipate and avoid pitfalls, stay focused, and respond to challenges with creativity and optimism.

5) Failure Inspires Innovative Solutions

?After every failed venture, we are always forced to re-evaluate and re-strategist and come out with better ways of succeeding.

6) Failure Recommits Us to Our Goals

·Temporal setbacks, make us sit back and study the reasons for the setback. Once we find out the cause of the setback, we recommit to our goals, this time cautiously and with some level of experience. After a failure, we start again more committed and determined.

7) Failure Help Build Resilience in Us.

Resilience is our ability to withstand unexpected circumstances and it can be regarded as emotional fitness. It is rather unfortunate that we can’t build resilience on success alone. It takes failure too, to build our inner strength and come out with an efficient way of dealing with failure. If we are resilient we can easily cope with stressful situations. If our life is not broken and tested by failure, and we succeed in everything that we do, that means we are not prepared for what might come our way. Our resilience is built when we face failure, we build it bit by bit by defeating momentary challenges. When the challenges are very hard to overcome, we build even stronger resilience that will make us overcome greater challenges.

?After expatiating on some of the positive effects of failure and its necessity for success, we are now going to consider some steps that are needed to be in order to change failure into success and become very successful.?Before their success, some of the world’s most highly successful people experienced catastrophic failures. We celebrate their success but often overlooked the path that got them there. A path that is often marked with failure. As quoted by the famous Japanese entrepreneur Soichiro Honda “People see my success is only one percent. But, they do not see my 99% failure”

?“There is no failure except in no longer trying.” ?These are the words of American writer Elbert Hubbard. ?