Learning from failure

Failure should be thought of as one of your greatest teachers. At one point or another, all of us will experience failure. Companies, individuals and teams all have losing seasons. Getting back on track has a lot to do with what you learn and even more to do with your attitude moving forward.

I have met many business people who in the midst of a slump are focusing totally on what they are doing wrong. They walk around with a dialog in their heads that says things like …

What am I doing wrong? Or maybe I have lost my edge? Or, I suck!

I am not immune to this by the way. I have done it myself in the past. These are very negative thoughts and they approach the challenge from a negative standpoint.

A much better way to think is to say..

What can I do better? Or what did my competition or my peers do to meet that challenge successfully?

Thinking about your successes and applying what you know is empowering. Speaking to other positive people in your circle of friends and associates is also very helpful. Analyzing what your competition is doing can shed light onto what you might do differently next time.

Recently, I was reading the recap of an NHL (hockey) game. These recaps always have quotations from the players and coaches. Often, the losing coach harps on and on about how some of his players had not given their best effort, or blaming his goalie, or whining about penalties. In this particular recap, I read something that really caught my eye. The head coach said this. “Our opposition tonight played a great game. We also played a good game but they did some things extremely well and if we choose to, we can learn from them.”

Consider that for a minute. There is nothing negative in the statement at all. Rather, he is challenging his players and his coaching staff in a positive way while recognizing the achievement of his competition. He is also stating that choice is a key ingredient. This is called taking ownership.

Remember this, you only lose a fight if you don’t learn something from it.

Gichin Funakoshi, who is attributed as being the “father of modern karate” had this to say about victory and defeat.

“The ultimate aim of the art of karate lies not in victory or defeat, but in the perfection of the characters of its participants.”

Now there’s some words worth considering for a while, don’t you think?

 

Photo Credits

Image from the Microsoft Clip Art Collection

© Gil Namur, 2009