Failure.
January. 2022
Failure: Noun: A lack of success; An unsuccessful person, enterprise, or thing.
Ok, so the definition gives us a sense of what failure is not. Failure is not success. But I recently told a dear friend that I ‘fail’ more times than not in life. Said with a smile on my face, coated by laughter, and not a tinge of regret in my voice or heart. He asked me what I think is an essential way to look at failure: are these failures positive or negative?’ I think this is a better way to investigate the definition, connotations, mishaps, and victories of what failure really is.
I believe failure is good. It is healthy. If we continue to live our lives greeted by success after success, does that mean we are straight up AWESOME, or in a strange twist, in reality, we are failures? Failures because we are not challenging ourselves to push beyond the comfort zone of calculated victory. Life lived stranded on a plateau, where one doesn’t experience the trecherous depths from the bottom of the valley, but almost more terrifying, never have seen the breathtaking views from the peak. Don’t get me wrong. This plateau is comfortable. It is void of disappointment. It salvages its hostages from embarrassment and heartbreak.
Obviously we must strive for success, but once it is reached, then it is essential to set our sites on bigger, bolder, and brighter dreams. Ones that very easily may end in, yup, failure. Positive failure. The kind where you set your sites on qualifying for the Boston Marathon or starting a business. You accept the risk, the endless work, the tears, and the sacrifice it takes to take the journey. And you very well might not succeed. You might run the 3:31:00, a minute off. Your company might not get any traction.
You have failed.
But have you really failed? Or is this actually success? Success because you gave it your all, learned in the process, grew, and most importantly, tried. Perfectly stated by Theodore Roosevelt, ‘and if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly so that his place is never with those cold, timid souls who know not victory nor defeat.’
I plan to continue striving for positive failure in this life, with successes sprinkled in. But with each of these successes, striving for bigger, better, and riskier ventures that might very well end in, you got it, failure.