The Importance of LEARNING from FAILURE

In recently addressing my internal staff, I was reminded of why we MUST learn from our experiences, so as NOT to waste an opportunity to learn. I let them know listed below are the various goals we have for the year, and in this list of things, I PROMISED them FAILURE would be a part of 2020:

• COMMITMENT
• INVESTMENT
• EXCITEMENT
• FAILURE

No that last point was NOT a mistake…I meant to mention it, because in the midst of all the positive things we endeavor to do in expanding our reach, launching offices, continuing in training and education, moving in roles, etc., it is INEVITABLE that at some point we will fail at something…this is life. History is replete with the stories of men and women who FAILED their way to the top. 

EXAMPLES:

1) Tom Landry (GO COWBOYS - sorry, couldn't help it!), Chuck Noll, Bill Walsh, and Jimmy Johnson accounted for 11 of the 19 Super Bowl victories from 1974 to 1993. They also share the distinction of having the WORST records of first-season head coaches in NFL history - they didn't win a single game.

2) Walt Disney was fired by a newspaper editor because "he lacked imagination and had no good ideas." He went bankrupt several times before he built Disneyland. In fact, the proposed park was rejected by the city of Anaheim on the grounds that it would only attract riffraff.

3) Charles Schultz had every cartoon he submitted rejected by his high school yearbook staff. Oh, and Walt Disney wouldn't hire him.

4) When Julie Andrews took her first screen test for MGM studios, the final determination was that "She's not photogenic enough for film." (This was especially puzzling, because as a 9 year-0ld boy I got a crush on Julie Andrews...so... :-)

5) Michael Jordan and Bob Cousy were each cut from their high school basketball teams. Jordan once observed, "I've failed over and over again in my life. That is why I succeed."

6)  The first time Jerry Seinfeld walked on-stage at a comedy club as a professional comic, he looked out at the audience, froze, and forgot the English language. He stumbled through "a minute-and a half" of material and was jeered offstage. He returned the following night and closed his set to wild applause. (Many would say they are glad for the hours of endless entertainment he provided the world through a successful sitcom of his own namesake.)

7) Beethoven handled the violin awkwardly and preferred playing his own compositions instead of improving his technique. His teacher called him "hopeless as a composer." And, of course, you know that he wrote five of his greatest symphonies while completely deaf.

Here is the point - the common thread that ties these stories together, some that span centuries and continents is two-fold:

* They LEARNED from their FAILURES!

* They NEVER QUIT!

If I can give one last illustration to support this, shortly before the turn of the 19th century, a man named D.L. Moody, a Congregational (that’s a denomination you don’t hear of these days) minster, was attempting something in his church and ministry that generally was not being done by others - he was reaching out to the "down-and-outers" that others had come to ignore at the time. That said, one of his “parishioners” approached him after a Sunday service one day and said, “Rev Moody, I don’t like the way you’re doing this”, to which he responded, “Well, how do you do it?!”… her response? “Actually, I have never done that before…I don’t do that”… HIS RESPONSE?  It was spot on – “THEN I LIKE MY WAY BETTER”…

The truth is that for the rest of your life you will fail, and others will remind you of those failures, and tell you how they could have done it better, but THEY DIDN’T DO IT, and YOU DID!!! If you have any desire to grow in your career, know that #failure will be a part of it. If you are not willing to fail, then don't waste your time trying...

President Teddy Roosevelt said it this way...

"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."

As you face 2020, whether you are in RECRUITING, SALES, MARKETING, OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT, seeking a LEADERSHIP role, etc., remember this is the time to FAIL and LEARN...and, NEVER QUIT!

Best Wishes in 2020!

-Adrian Dominguez