Archive for Failing Forward
The benefits of mistakes
Posted by: | CommentsI recently shared a few quotes on mistakes here. And based on the comments, they seemed to strike a chord for many of you. I believe you can’t have too much instruction on the value of mistakes. So I thought I’d share one of my favorite illustrations on the subject. This is quoted in my book, Failing Forward
Working artists David Bayles and Ted Orland, in their book, Art & Fear: Observations On the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking
The ceramics teacher announced on opening day that he was dividing the class into two groups. All those on the left side of the studio, he said, would be graded solely on the quantity of work they produced, all those on the right solely on its quality. His procedure was simple: on the final day of class he would bring in his bathroom scales and weigh the work of the “quantity” group: fifty pounds of pots rated an “A,” forty pounds a “B,” and so on. Those being graded on “quality,” hoever, needed to produce only one pot – albeit a perfect one – to get an “A.” Well, came grading time and a curious fact emerged: the works of the highest quality were all produced by the group being graded for quantity. It seems that while the “quantity” group was busily churning out piles of work – and learning from their mistakes – the “quality” group had sat theorizing about perfection, and in the end had little more to show for their efforts than grandiose theories and a pile of dead clay.
It doesn’t matter whether your objectives are in the area of art, business, ministry, sports, or relationships. The only way you can get ahead is to fail early, fail often, and fail forward.
From my files: Mistakes
Posted by: | CommentsI haven’t shared any favorite quotes here in awhile. Today’s selection comes from my file on Mistakes. I hope they inspire and encourage you. And if you want to keep them for future reference, try my filing system to record them.
You miss 100% of the shots you never take. –Wayne Gretzky
The fellow who never makes a mistake takes his orders from someone who does. –Herbert Brocknow
Most of my advances were by mistake. You uncover what is when you get rid of what isn’t. –R. Buckminster Fuller
The greatest of faults, I should say, is to be conscious of none. –Thomas Carlyle
All discoveries in art and science result from an accumulation of errors. –Marshall McLuhan
Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new. -Albert Einstein
Mistakes are painful when they happen, but years later a collection of mistakes is what is called experience. -Denis Waitley
The greatest mistake you can make in life is to be continually fearing you will make one. ~Elbert Hubbard
What’s your response to failure?
Posted by: | CommentsMost great people have attained their greatest success just one step beyond their greatest failure.
-Napoleon Hill
When I was growing up, one of the questions I used to hear from motivational speakers was this: “If the possibility of failure were erased, what would you attempt to achieve?”
That seemed to be an intriguing question. At the time it prompted me to look ahead to life’s possibilities. But then one day I realized that it was really a bad question. Why? Because it takes a person’s thinking down the wrong track. There is no achievement without failure. To even imply that it might be possible gives people the wrong impression. So here’s a better question:
If your perception of and response to failure were changed, what would you attempt to achieve?
I don’t know what obstacles you are facing in your life right now. But whatever they are doesn’t matter. What does matter is that your life can change if you’re willing to look at failure differently. You have the potential to overcome any problems, mistakes, or misfortunes. All you have to do is learn to fail forward.
Look at the way any achiever approaches negative experiences, and you can learn a lot about how to fail forward. Read through these two lists, and determine which one describes your approach to failure:
Failing Backward Failing Forward
Blaming others Taking responsibility
Repeating the same mistake Learning from each mistake
Expecting never to fail Knowing failure is part of the process
Expecting to continually fail Maintaining a positive attitude
Accepting tradition blindly Challenging outdated assumptions
Being limited by past mistakes Taking new risks
Thinking “I am a failure” Believing something didn’t work
Quitting Persevering
Think about a recent setback you experienced. How did you respond? No matter how difficult your problems were, the key to overcoming them doesn’t lie in changing your circumstances. It’s in changing yourself. That in itself is a process, and it begins with a desire to be teachable. If you’re willing to do that, then you’ll be able to handle failure. From this moment on, make a commitment to do whatever it takes to fail forward.
~ From Failing Forward
Removing the U from Failure
Posted by: | CommentsDo you think of yourself as a failure? Maybe not in every area of life, but in at least one important one? Well, you’re not alone. Many people think that having failed makes them a failure. Too many people. So many, in fact, that I wrote an entire book, Failing Forward, to challenge that perception.
Seeing yourself as a failure is a negative thinking pattern. It doesn’t make you feel any better, and, even more important, it doesn’t help you do any better in the future. To start “failing forward,” you need to look at failure differently.
Pick any area where you’ve repeatedly failed and do the following:
Examine your expectations for that area. Write them down. Are they realistic? Do you expect to do everything perfectly? Do you expect to succeed on the first try? How many mistakes should you expect to make before you succeed? You’ll probably need to adjust your expectations to allow many more mistakes or failures before success.
Find new ways to do your work. Brainstorm at least twenty new approaches to your job or task. Now, I should point out that people who fear failure have a hard time brainstorming because they don’t want to list a “wrong” idea. Be flexible and list even the most outrageous approaches. Then be even more flexible and try at least half of the ideas on your list.
Focus on your strengths. In areas where you’ve frequently failed, ask yourself, “What did I do right?” It’s normal to focus on what you did wrong in the situation, but everyone has some strengths. Rather than focusing on patching up your weaknesses, determine to use your best skills and personal strengths to maximize your efforts.
Vow to bounce back. No matter how many times you fall down, pick yourself up and keep going. This sounds too simplistic, but it’s really essential. Until you commit to keep going, you will always entertain the option of quitting after a failure.
Don’t wait until you feel positive to move forward. Instead, act your way into feeling good. And stop defining yourself as a failure. That kind of negative thinking will always block you from failing forward.
Failure is an inside job
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Photo from Flickr, Chris Daniel’s Photostream
His name is Roger Crawford, and he makes his living as a consultant and public speaker. He’s written a few books, and travels all across the country working with Fortune 500 companies, national and state associations, and school districts.
Those aren’t bad credentials. But if that doesn’t impress you, how about this: before becoming a consultant, he was a varsity tennis player for Loyola Marymount University and later became a professional tennis player certified by the United States Professional Tennis Association. Still not impressed? Would you change your opinion if I told you Roger has no hands and only one foot?
Roger Crawford was born with a condition called ectrodactylism. When he emerged from his mother’s womb, the doctors saw that he had a thumb-like projection extending out of his right forearm, and a thumb and finger growing out of his left forearm. He had no palms. His legs and arms were shortened. And his left leg possessed a shrunken foot with only three toes. (The foot was amputated when he was five.) Roger’s parents were told by various medical professionals that he would never be able to walk, probably would not be able to take care of himself, and would never lead a normal life.
After recovering from the shock, Roger’s parents determined to give him the best chance possible for living a normal life. They raised him to feel loved, to be strong, and to develop independence. “You’re only as handicapped as you want to be,” his father used to tell him.
When he was old enough, they sent him to regular public schools. They involved him in sports. They encouraged him to do everything his heart desired. And they taught him to think positively.
“Something my parents never did was to allow me to feel sorry for myself, or to take advantage of people because of my handicap,” observes Roger.
Roger appreciated the encouragement and training he received from his parents, but I don’t think he really understood the significance of it or his achievements until he was in college and he interacted with someone who wanted to meet him. He had received a phone called from a man who had read about his tennis victories, and Crawford agreed to meet him at a nearby restaurant. When Roger stood up to shake hands with the man, he discovered that the other guy had hands that were almost identical to his. That got Crawford excited, because he thought he had found someone similar to him but older who could act as his mentor. But after talking with the stranger for a few minutes, he realized he was wrong. Roger says,
Instead, what I found was someone with a bitter, pessimistic attitude who blamed all of life’s disappointments and failures on his anatomy.
I soon recognized that our lives and attitudes couldn’t have been more different. . . . He had never held a job for long, and he was sure this was because of “discrimination”–certainly not because (as he admitted) he was constantly late, frequently absent, and failed to take any responsibility for his work. His attitude was, “The world owes me,” and his problem was that the world disagreed. He was even angry with me because I didn’t share his despair.
We kept in touch for several years, until it dawned on me that even if some miracle were suddenly to give him a perfect body, his unhappiness and lack of success wouldn’t change. He would still be at the same place in his life.
That man had allowed failure to seize him from the inside, while Roger had mastered the art of failing forward.
Chances are that the adversity in your life has been nowhere near as difficult as Roger Crawford’s has been. And that’s why his story is such an inspiration. Roger maintains, “Handicaps can only disable us if we let them. This is true not only of physical challenges, but of emotional and intellectual ones as well. . . . I believe that real and lasting limitations are created in our minds, not our bodies.” In other words, no matter what happens, failure is an inside job.
Adapted from Failing Forward
