FAILURES ARE FEEDBACKS

If we look at it with so much intent and in-depth, you would realize that there are really no failures – only feedbacks.

Whether we like it or not, failure is an integral part of life. It is necessary for personal growth and success in life overall. We may fail on a small or grander scale, once or many times, it doesn’t really matter. What matters is the process and what we have learned from our experiences.

Many of us do not want to experience this thing called failure. The time and effort wasted, the humiliation, the headaches – it’s just too much. Most of all, what if our failure confirms our worst fear: that we’re not good enough? As we grow older, fear of failure becomes more and more real.

Everyone fails in life. At one point or another, you’re going to suffer through failure. If you haven’t already experienced some monumental failures, then you just wait and see. The problem? Most people associate failure with complete defeat. I know, because I’ve failed countless times over.

Eventually, not trying anything new seems like a better option because we’d rather not know the limit of our capabilities.

Failing in any area of life can be terrifying when you look at it that way. But recently, I’ve been looking at failure from a different perspective. It’s one that a lot of entrepreneurs and innovative companies use to test out new ideas. Here’s how it works.

Why learning from failure is important and serves as feedback:

1. You realize it isn’t the end of the road

When you fail, and you fail big, it feels like the end of the line. It feels like everything you once hoped for and dreamed for is now completely out of your reach. It takes an emotional toll on you. It breaks you physically, mentally, and spiritually. But, what I came to realize was that failure wasn’t the end of the road.

1. You learn who to trust. Working with friends and family can often be part of running a business. If you feel that these people, whom you may have been close with long before working with them, are responsible for your failure, you’ll know not to trust them in future. You might even decide to avoid working with friends and family altogether and stick solely to pure business connections.
2. You learn to listen to yourself. Shame can accompany failure, but only if you let it. Learn to tune out any non-constructive, negative feedback that comes from failing. Building self-trust can boost your confidence when you try again, which may lead to future success.
3. You become more resilient. Failure is painful. Over time, failure can build resilience, which is why the pain is a little less each time it occurs. With this resilience comes more fearlessness to get back up and try again.
4. You’ll learn what to do better next time. It’s tempting to think that if you’ve made a mistake once, you shouldn’t try again. Failure can teach you that trying once doesn’t mean you’ll never achieve the success you’re striving for. If you can identify the steps that led to your failure and why they had the results they did, you can form a strategy for future success that avoids these treacherous past steps.

Failure doesn’t feel good. Not accomplishing your goal can leave you feeling unmotivated or even that you shouldn’t even be trying run a business. But you can look at it another way – if you fail, you open yourself up to learning from it. It may seem paradoxical, but learning from failure teaches you unique and vital lessons. Failures are feedback. Learn from them. Grow on them and never be afraid to start over.