“The sting of failure is a very important motivator to getting it right next time.”
Man, failure can sting sometimes.
I’m reminded of this every day because it seems like it happens to me every day! As you can see, I’m not afraid to admit it.
An employee shared an article with me this morning of an interview with Kevin O’Leary. You know, Mr. Wonderful off of Shark Tank. It was a simple piece: “Kevin O’Leary’s 7 Golden Tips For Startups.” Number two on the list was about failure, and it immediately made my stomach tighten up a bit.
It’s easy to talk about failure, but only when we weren’t the ones who failed!
In the moment, failure isn’t so fun. Not for most of us, anyways.
They say that the great inventor and business man Thomas Edison would sometimes laugh and applaud when one of his new ideas didn’t work.
Laugh and applaud, people.
I don’t know about you, but it takes me awhile to laugh at my own mistakes. I’ve usually got to let it sit for a week or so. Ok, maybe it’s more like a year or so. I’ll eventually laugh and turn it into a story that makes others laugh, but not right away.
I suppose that’s the only difference between me and Edison, right? Right? Guys?
We’ll read story after story, article after article (like this one) that talk about failure. Those things will tell us that failure is good. It is, but not right away. Failure is tough. It’s painful. It’s not something to look forward to.
But it’s necessary.
“Great entrepreneurs absorb the hit, move on and become stronger.”
I’m failing right now.
To-do’s have piled up on my list. Cash flow is down. And there’s one client in particular who is suffering because of us.
None of that is laughable to me. Quick failures sting, slow failures burn. Neither option feels particularly delightful.
While it really hurts now, I have to believe that this entire experience will pay off down the road. If I don’t believe it, then none of this is worth it. One thing I didn’t realize until recently was that being patient for good things is relatively easy until there’s failure.
Perhaps the one thing tougher than failure itself is convincing yourself that it’ll one day pay off.
But just like failure, it’s necessary.
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Photo: Flickr/bokehaddict
