We often live a life that is about learning how to avoid mistakes, which means we’re not willing to take risks. When we won’t take chances, we don’t learn anything new — all we’re doing is repeating back all the knowledge that we currently have, which isn’t all that much, based on how much is actually out there.
To accelerate success, you must be willing to make mistakes. Failure is a resource; it helps you find the edge of your capabilities, and your capacities.
Everything that you do has come through failing, realizing that wasn’t the way to do it, doing it differently, learning a skill set and then eventually mastering whatever it is.
As I read that note in an article written by David Nagel, executive coach, it completely overwhelmed my thought process. Failure accelerates success. As I write this, I am on a 15 hour flight leaving Hong Kong headed home to New York for the holidays. On long flights like this, I often cocoon for a period and just think reflectively. Especially at this time of year, we should all move into a reflective move in some way.
Living in disbelief
If someone told me just a few years ago that I would end up traveling all over the world and living abroad in the Middle East, I would have suggested health care immediately. My travels and business give me the ability to educate the next level of HR leaders and work with senior leaders from some of the most prestigious brands in the world. The journey takes me to Africa, APAC and Europe.
However, this journey has not been without multiple failures that provided the steam to propel me to this pinnacle.
I was asked in a recent forum if I would ever consider coming back to corporate in some capacity. My answer was a resounding NO! Been there done that, succeeded and failed in that past life. But as I review and reflect on the past years, my portfolio is bulging with memories good and bad. They are sprinkled with numerous failures, missteps and a lot of agony. Multiple times, I’ve stared at a crossroad that looked bleak.
No instruction manual for life
There will never be an instruction manual that guides you thorough failures. You take a deep breath and proceed whether that is a U-turn, a left turn or right. The bet you make can lead to a host of outcomes.
This post is based on reflection, which should be a part of our growth process no matter the situation you are in at this point in time. How was 2018? Was it filled with failure or was it a resounding success? Regardless which end of the spectrum it falls, we must all reflect on the year as a part of growth. If you suffered failure or resounding success it does not matter. Reflect upon it.
I remember keeping a file of rejection letters and email. From time to time I would pull out the file and read over the letters. I noticed something after I went through this process: I felt a refueling of energy and a rise in optimism.
Life is not GPS based
In a lot of cases I was almost thankful that some of those letters were not offers, because each could have been a failure or some, a detour, like a u-turn toward an unknown destination. While we may plot a destination or milestone on our own way, the direction is not GPS-based and not always a direct route.
There will be multiple detours along the way. The CEO of WD-40 said in a video about working at his company that, “We don’t make mistakes here; we have learning moments.” Such a powerful message.
Embrace them all
Embrace your failures; look at each unplanned detour as a toll-gate. At that toll-gate the fare to move forward is to acknowledge what happened and learn from it, and as the gate lifts and you proceed to the next stopping point realize it could turn out to be a huge success or another failure.
That is the risk we take. That is what makes life so interesting. Life is like a big puzzle. At any given time, something could come along and wipe all the pieces to the floor. That does not mean that you give up. What it means is that you step back, breath, analyse and move back into the game.
We all have a destination in mind, yet none of us can know where we will end up. We are all on the same journey — all of us. From the outside, as we review the landscape, we admire and, in some cases, may be envious of what we see of others. However, if you could see inside the mind of these others, you’d find their trail was fraught with turning points. I have always felt that the external view does not make the internal view.
Choose your Cadillac
In other words, it is not easy or, as my father would always tell me, “If it were easy everyone would be driving Cadillacs.” In his time frame that car was the sure sign that you made it.
So in closing chose your color, because your Cadillac is waiting.