Failure is Just Another Word for Growing

Are you the best at what you want to be? Have you achieved the pinnacle in a passion or area of interest for you? Have you mastered the skills required to be known as an expert?

Last year, the Khan Academy (www.khanacademy.org) re-branded and created for themselves a position as a leader in learning. They offer online learning, lots of learning for free. To promote this new branding they created a promotional video, and for me it is one of the most influential videos I have seen. The branding is “You Can Learn Anything” and here is the video…

This video has a powerful message, and for me it strikes a strong chord that if realised and believed, can change lives. My favourite line is the title of this post – “Failure is another word for growing”.

In NLP terms (Neuro-Linguistic Programming), there is a belief that there is no such thing as failure, only feedback. This means that when something doesn’t work as expected, it is only information that it didn’t work, and we have an opportunity to adjust our tactics based on that information.

I created a quote a few years ago that reads “Failure does not exist until you have given up”.

There are a number of other great quotes along these lines…

“You just can’t beat the person who never gives up.” – George Herman (‘Babe’) Ruth

“Repetition is the mother of skill.” – Anthony Robbins

It is unfortunate that in the field of education there has been so much emphasis placed on testing, wrote learning and “high grades no matter the cost”, that our children are now scared to try anything new because they might get it wrong, they might fail – and getting it wrong is *B*A*D*. However, it is only in the attempt of things that are new to us that we ever learn.

I consulted with a business where the sales staff had been pummelled with processes and rules and targets. I was brought in to motivate them as the whole team was in a slump, and I quickly discovered that the targets were so high that they were rarely being achieved, in essence de-motivating the staff. This meant the staff were not making the calls because there was no point in trying!

I set them a challenge, pitting them against each other for the following 30 days. They were to jump on the phone and collect as many “no’s” as they could get. To not even record the “yes’s” (the business would see this) and just focus on collecting the “no’s”. The person with the most “no’s” was the winner.

Not only did the number of “yes’s” increase giving them their highest sales value month in two years, but the skill of each staff member increased measurably as they received feedback, changed their tactic, and tried something different on the next call – all staff increased their skill.

Have you focussed on your goal or desire so much that not attaining it has demotivated you? Are the expectations you have set for yourself self limiting?

Get back on the bike… failure means that you are moving, that you are doing something – and this is infinitely better than stagnation or throwing in the towel.

In the comments below, let us know if this resonates with you – and what growing you recognised by keep on, keeping on.

Until next time,

Fail and Live Your Ultimate Life