Defining Failure.....

A lot of our organizational goals and business strategies emphasize on defining what success looks like. That is great because it gives clarity to us and directs us to work towards a common goal. But what if in the process of achieving those goals we miss out on some of the biggest lessons we would not have learnt otherwise. What if in the process we have forsaken our values. What if in the process we neglected our basic duties as a mother, father, husband, wife, brother, sister, son, daughter, colleague, friend or neighbor. When we don’t define failure we risk automating our life and career.

I am right now at the Global Leadership Summit hosted by a satellite site at Kentwood Community Church, Grand Rapids, MI. The talks I have heard so far have inspired me to start writing again. Yeah I know again. I used to write when I was single and had all the time for myself. I am not making an excuse that I now have a loving husband and two wonderful boys one toddler and one 7 month old. Neither am I complaining that I have a great job that keeps me occupied all day and some times awake at night. But I just wanted to break from the long break I have taken from writing.

So you might me wondering why I am writing about failure when I am back doing something exciting in my life; something that I have been putting away on the back burner for years. The reason is that my new role at work and home have made me think about my identity and the impact I have on those around me. The career driven over achiever in me does not want to slow down and retrospect. That drive in me keeps me jumping from one challenge to the next. But this time right now at the Summit and amidst the projects I am working on made me realize that there is more to life than simply achieving results. And that is learning from our failures. For that we need to define failure.

Nobody wants to talk about failures because it is touchy and sometimes personal. It throws us out of our comfort zones. It makes us look bad and questions our credibility. So how do I define failure?

#1 Failure is putting projects above people at work and home

#2 Failure is not adhering to the founding principles of our companies or our personal faith or belief system in times of crisis

#3 Failure is sacrificing our integrity for something we assumed was more important

#4 Failure is not course correcting when you know trouble awaits ahead

#5 Failure is compromising the process in order to achieve the results

#6 There is more but I will stop for now

I would like to end with hope. I always try to remind myself that today is the first day of the rest of life and it instantly fills me with hope and courage to focus on the right things. It gives me a second third or whatever number chance to keep improving myself and setting an example for others.

Share how you would define failure?