Learning To Take Advantage Of Failures

There’s a truth about failure you come to understand while pursuing your passion. As dreamers, we don’t typically give attention to this truth in the beginning. Mostly because of our learned response to failure.

Actually, that isn’t entirely true. Not many of us know how to respond to failure. Especially if it’s the very first time we come across it in what we do. Avoiding failure has been the set standard growing up that when you actually really fail… you sometimes have no clue how to respond to it.

Do you cry? Leave town? Avoid people?

Think back. When was the very first time you failed a test in school? How did that make you feel? When was the very first time you screwed up at work? Were you able to continue working for the rest of the day without anxiety? I am pretty sure you were scared out of your socks.

But why?

Well, mostly because winning is something we generally promote and give so much positive attention to. Losing or failing is typically treated like the worst sin a person could commit.

Okay, maybe not the worst sin…

You see, many of us grow up having a biased understanding of how succeeding works. Convinced that success is an outcome of making all the “right” moves. And that permanent failure comes as a result of… well… too many failures.

No wonder many people are afraid to pursue their passions with 100% commitment. I know many think that dreamers and “go-getters” are the daredevils of our society.

They are not.

The best dreamers among us often have firm resolve to accept both victories and losses that they must face throughout their journey. They do not tell themselves to focus only on winning. They need to also embrace failures.

They remind themselves of who they really are in the grand scheme of things.

They are disciplined learners. Nothing more.

Not geniuses. Not talents. Not lucky.

True success has been realized by many who know what will work and who know what will not work.

Do you really think that a book with the title, “12 Ways To Not Handle Acid In Labs” is worthless?

Without failures, we would not be enjoying so many of the gadgets we take for granted today. We would not have some of the most important medicines we need today.

This is the real truth about failure.

The fear associated with failure is irrational. We only think it’s real because we don’t understand the value of failing sometimes. We don’t understand the value because we don’t see the value in trying to understand it. And because of that, many dreamers quit on the first sign of defeat.

Fortunately, not all dreamers submit to this fear. This is something more commonly experienced initially.

When you begin going through enough failures, you begin to realize that they aren’t as bad as you always thought they were. That in fact, they reveal a lot of important truths.

If I fail to make millions of dollars on my first 2 games… well then, it’s only clear that I’m still hanging around in the amateur lounge. There is something about me that needs to improve. Is it the games themselves or my marketing efforts that aren’t producing the results I want?

The last thing I’m thinking is that I’m a failure, this life is hard, and that there is no way to make money in this industry.

Start understanding the failure stories that many successful people talk about in their lectures to aspiring entrepreneurs, people seeking better positions in jobs, and college graduates. They don’t toss those experiences aside. They don’t forget them. Many of them are defined by them.

Failing isn’t a weakness. It’s a challenge to change, grow or do better. But you can only see this if you pay attention to the lesson that every failure brings.

“Every failure brings with it the seed of an equivalent success.” ~ Napoleon Hill

#makeProgressNotExcuses