Why is it that we are so afraid of failure?
David Elges
Global Transformational EVP CIO and Board Member | New and Emerging Technologies | Cross-Functional Leader | Ex. CIO for Boston and Washington, D.C. | Strategy & Board Governance | Risk TGRC/NIST/ISO/SOC2/GDPR/PII/SOX
Anyone who has achieved ANYTHING great, anyone who has CHANGED THE WORLD has at some point made a choice to embrace failure instead of fighting it.
If you look at the most inspirational innovators, athletes, geniuses, and icons throughout history, they all shared a common belief – they simply did not entertain the notion of failure as a bad thing.
Instead, they understood that every failure encountered brings you one step closer to success, and that this is a natural part of the process. Some even enjoyed failure!
If you think about it, failure is just feedback; it’s simply showing you what’s not working so you can find out what will work. It’s necessary and can’t be avoided.
If we didn’t have failure, how would we know what to do next? The process of learning from our mistakes is truly invaluable, and is something we need to run toward, not run away from.
Let’s celebrate these wonderful souls who chose to embrace failure with open arms. Maybe, just maybe, their words of wisdom will help us to do the same. These are a few of my favorites:
- “Success is the ability to go from failure to failure without losing your enthusiasm.” - Winston Churchill
- “Failure is only the opportunity to begin again, only this time more wisely.” - Henry Ford
- “Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising every time we fail.” - Confucious
- “Failure is success if we learn from it.” - Malcolm Forbes
5. “It is fine to celebrate success, but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure.” - Bill Gates
Enterprise Architecture Executive
8 年great article! thanks for sharing and the reminder!
Sr IT Service Manager, MBA ITIL Master, ITIL 4 Managing Professional, ITIL Strategic Leader, ITIL v3 -Expert; PMP, CGEIT, COBIT 5
8 年wasn't it Edison who said I didn't fail 1000 times, I just learned 1000 ways not to make a lightbulb..
Aligning technology to optimize business processes
9 年I am due for a major break thru....
Impact Sports Massage
9 年to me.. if you aren't failing you aren't trying.
Lead, Social Finance, Partnerships & Resource Mobilization, Islamic Development Bank (IsDB)
9 年Failure shows that you have the experience and may know the do's and don'ts better than someone theorizing !