:
Failure: Fear It or Embrace It?
What
is Failure? The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines failure as “the omission of occurrence or performance; failing to perform a duty or expected action”. But how do people in the workplace define it and
how does it affect work? There are those
that say failure is actually beneficial! From this view, instead of feeling
down and upset from failure, we should embrace the lessons that can be learned
from it and move forward stronger than before. These people also view, in some
cases, failure as a sign of innovation and it is simply part of the process of
taking chances. On the other hand, there are those that fear failure to an
extreme extent and others who do not see the benefits from failure, but think
instead we should find ways to avoid failure to begin with. I believe failure
is bound to happen in any form of work we do, and sure we shouldn’t seek out
failure, but we shouldn’t view it as a bad thing. Instead, we should look for
the good out of it, such as lessons learned and seeing what works and what
doesn’t. But a good question to address first is, why do we fear failure to
begin with? Where does this stem from?
It seems
that we have this innate fear of failure. We’ve all felt it: that knot in your
stomach and that sunk feeling in your chest knowing that you messed up. You
keep telling yourself how much you wish you could go back and do things
differently. “If I had just done this instead of that, it’d be ok!” you say to
yourself. According to hypnotherapist Tellman Knudson, “It (fear of failure) has everything to do with fear of
failure being a socially acceptable behavior” (Knudson 2014). Fear of failure
can become a thing of the past if, as a society, we're willing to view it as
productive and something that happens versus a taboo. He goes on the clarify
that the majority of the time, we fear failing in the now, or getting it right
the first time. What he means is we normally don’t fear failing at something
we’ve had years of practice at, but something new or unknown. He also brings up
an interesting point of how we have been brought up this way in school.
“Getting the “right” answer the first time is the only thing that is rewarded
in most schools. Getting the wrong answer is punished in a variety of ways: low
grades, scolding and contempt from teachers and peers” (Knudson 2014). I can
relate to this on a personal level. So often I’ve worried about getting a good
grade, or else I had failed if I didn't meet my expectations! I’ve been a
pretty good student throughout my whole educational walk, but always in the
back of my head is that fear of not getting the grade I want, or in some cases,
feel I need. Knudson goes on to explain that usually this is the beginning of
it. Over time, as we continually learn this in school, it is trained into our
brain to the point we’re adults, we still feel that way, whether at home, work
or wherever. However, he stresses that we must “retrain” our brains out of this
in order to learn from our mistakes!
Some of the most well-known people
in the world have failed. Bill Gate’s first business was a complete failure.
But he learned from it and went on to become one of the richest people in the
world. Josh Hamilton, a professional baseball player, had struggles during his
early career with drugs and alcohol to the point where his major league
appearance was delayed and almost cost him the opportunity to play at that high
level. However, instead of wallowing in his mistakes, he got help, came back to
the league and not only was an All-Star but also helped lead his team to two
World Series in a row! Sue Shellenbarger of Wall Street Journal
wrote an interesting article on failure leading to better ideas. The basic
concept is that many businesses notice that innovation is decreasing and this
has been tied to the fear of failure (Shellenbarger 2011). She even asked
successful entrepreneur Judy Estrin about the topic.
“Failure, and how companies deal with failure, is a very
big part of innovation. Failures caused by sloppiness or laziness are bad. But if
employees try something that was worth trying and fail, and if they are open
about it, and if they learn from that failure, that is a good thing”
(Shellenbarger 2011).
She touches on the key point that we shouldn’t seek
failure but if we run into it, it is best to learn from it. It also brings up a
downside from fearing failure: it is holding back people from attempting new
things and trying to create new innovations, therefore not only holding people
from their full potential but also businesses. This is why people like Judy are
addressing this issue. Tor Myhren of Grey New York, an advertising agency known
for the talking baby E*Trade ads, created a quarterly award called the “Heroic
Failure” (trophy included) that he awards to the most innovative or risk-taking
employee. Companies are beginning to follow this reward system because they are
noticing the ramifications of fear of failure. Laura Hutton, a Consultant for
Liquidity Marketing & Communications, wrote an article for the Australian
Institute of Business on the topic as well. She even brings up the example I
previously used with Bill Gates and his company, Traf-O-Data (Hutton 2014). Another
famous example she used is Walt Disney, who was once fired from a job as a
newspaper editor because he “lacked imagination and had no good ideas”. He made
other attempts at business that failed and even forced him to file bankruptcy.
Later on, he went on to found the Walt Disney Co. and the rest is history. This
goes on to present her first point of failure acting as feedback.
“One of the best aspects of facing a challenge in your
work is the opportunity to take a step back to analyze and revaluate your
practices. If something can be done better, the problem that occurred will
provide an example of what you need to avoid, and from there, new plans can be
made” (Hutton 2014).
Emotionally it is difficult to this because as Knudson
pointed out, it is natural for us to fear failing and put ourselves down once
we’re in that situation. However, all of these people, whether Disney, Gates or
various businesses owners across the country, would agree they learned a lot
from their failure and it helped them better themselves and their businesses! Hutton
also shares the same view that failure can lead to bigger and better
innovations, similar to what Shellenbarger pointed out in her article (Hutton
2014). However, just as there are people who believe failure can lead to good
things, there are others who believe it should be feared and more rational
people who think we should be cautious of this “embracing failure” approach.
Brittany Binowski, a contributor for Forbes, discussed her
view of failure in an interesting article. She names off some of the famous
examples I mentioned and points out their failures that led to success. But,
then she goes on to say this: “Many times, the media and other moguls magnify
the struggles of the successful. These struggles are celebrated, championed,
admired, and sometimes declared as a badge of honor among those who ‘make it’”
(Binowski 2012). She presents a very
fair point, that the media tends to over analyze and worship these feel good
success stories and that now we must “go out there and embrace failure”! Then
she asks the question: do we embrace failure to the point of danger? She argues
that many entrepreneurs and business people are approaching risk-taking and
failure with an increasingly relaxed attitude (Binowski 2012). Although it is
motivating people to find the lessons of failure, it’s also creating a bubble
that we may increase our own confirmation and availability bias. She then goes
on to share her view. “Let us not take failure
lightly. Instead, let us succeed as fast as we can – if we’re ever truly going
to make it. Failure is an over-glorified pain to be avoided” (Binowski 2012).
Her main point is although if we come across failure, it can beneficial for us
to learn from, but we must try to minimize the impact of it and learn how to
not fail in the first place! Dan Pickett, founder of Launch Academy in Boston,
wrote an article on the topic for Entrepreneur. He writes, “What’s important is
not the embrace failure, but to figure out how to manage it” (Pickett 2014). He
also agrees we can improve by learning from failure, but we cannot just simply “embrace
it”, we also have to take action, which leads me to my opinion of the topic.
After reading through this articles, I believe most of the authors, whether on one side or another, actually agree with each other more than it seems. I agree that we must break this mindset that failure is bad. By failure, I mean trying something new or taking a risk and it doesn't pan out. I do not think you should feel good if you keep trying to do something and screw it up multiple times. At that point, I would recommend trying something new. At times at work, I feel uncomfortable about trying different things with my sales pitch because I’m afraid that it may not work. As Hutton and Shellenberger discussed, it’s almost natural for us to take the easy way and not attempt innovation. In order for us to grow and learn, we have to take risks and own the failure that may come. Through my research, it has inspired me to attempt this mindset of both embracing and owning the failure and taking action on what I can learn from it. I believe this is something that everyone can benefit from, whatever your occupation is. If you’re a manager or supervisor, encouraging innovation and the possibility of failure is critical. If you’re not in a leadership role, be an example to those around you and even talk to your boss about ideas as to how you can create a more innovative and booming environment. Because as Mark Twain put it, “To succeed in life, you need two things: ignorance and confidence”.
No comments:
Post a Comment