Success – A “Result” of Failure
How successful are your feeling these days? How do you measure your success? The official definition of success is the achievement of something desired, planned or attempted. If at first you don’t succeed or achieve your desired outcome do you “try, try again” as the saying goes or do you give up and let go of your desires? Did you know that it took Thomas Edison over 5,000 experiments before he was successful at finding the best material for the light bulb? When a young reporter interviewed Edison and asked him how he could continue to try to invent the light bulb when he had failed over 5,000 times, Mr. Edison replied “Young man, I have not failed 5,000 times. I have successfully discovered 5,000 ways that do not work and I do not need to try them again.” Can you imagine trying that many times to do anything? What if Edison had given up after 100, 500 or even a 1000 tries (I know I would have) - how much longer would our civilization have lived in the “dark”, literally?
No one really wants to fail—especially in our achievement oriented culture. Failure seems to be identified with losing and unless we are losing weight, losing is really unacceptable in a society that thrives on competition and winning. If we try something and fail we may be called a “loser”. However, as we learn from Thomas Edison, failure is completely necessary in order to learn and ultimately succeed. Perhaps “learn” is the key word here. What if we measured our achievement and ultimate success by what we learn during our attempts to achieve our desired outcome? Taking note again from Mr. Edison, he said that he successfully discovered 5,000 ways that did not work and he didn’t need to try them again. What if we reframed the concept of our “failed attempts” and began to view them as strategies that we “successfully discovered” didn’t work? I am not sure if I would attempt to discover 5,000 ways that don’t work, but I would certainly be inspired to try harder if I felt I was on a discovery mission.
What do we and the world we live in miss out on when we let go of our dreams and desires because we are afraid of failure. How many inventions have not been made because someone got tired of failing and gave up on a dream? How many medical breakthroughs were just one “successful discovery” away when abandoned? If you have not yet achieved what you are working toward and desire although you have attempted it many times—do “try, try again”. Don’t give up – there is too much at stake both for you and others. Measure your success by what you are learning and discovering along the way and remember, success is not necessarily the absence of failure it is often the result!