The 8 Key Catalysts are
principles to live by, that I believe have made my life meaningful and
successful. Last month I wrote about Integrity. This month I continue with the
second key, Failure Leads to Success. At QLN, we focus on a particular key every
two weeks, where a staff member makes a presentation at our all-staff meeting to
reinforce the key.
FAILURE LEADS TO SUCCESS
The only real failure
is not learning from our mistakes.
We all make mistakes, we
all have failures. Failure Leads to Success is about looking at mistakes
or failures as feedback, learning from them, and growing from them.
During my life I’ve learned a lot from my mistakes-and
I’ve had a lot to learn from! What about you?
Think about the word failure. What emotions does it stir up?
For many, the emotions are mostly negative, like guilt, disappointment,
inadequacy. When we fail we often feel incompetent, embarrassed. When we fail we
can become disheartened. We don’t want to try again because of the risk. We
worry about our image.
We didn’t start out with negative feelings about failure. Toddlers
learning to walk aren’t weighed down with feelings of incompetence. When they
fall repeatedly they stand up and try again, and again-until they succeed and
keep on walking without falling. But somewhere along the way we learned that
trying and not succeeding was bad … that we were bad when we didn’t
succeed … then, that trying was bad.
Failures Are
a Lot Bigger On the Inside Than They Are On the Outside
It's actually not our failures, but how we think about them
that gives them the power to hold us back. When we fail, we experience two types
of consequences-internal and external. External is what happened-just the facts.
Internal is how we feel about ourselves from what happened. For example, think
back to your school days, to that math exam you botched your sophomore year. The
external consequences were a bad grade and maybe a stern lecture from your
parents. The internal consequences were those persistent voices in your head
that whispered, "You're no good at math. You're too stupid to do this." The bad
grade came and went-the little voices stayed, often long into adulthood.
Learning to
Learn From Failure
Early in my career I faced a significant failure. Hoping to
increase the reach of the educational business I was operating, I went into an
investment opportunity that produced a great return for a while, then suddenly
went very wrong. I lost everything-my home, possessions, money, and friends. I
felt like I was a complete failure. For a time, I couldn’t find anything
positive in my situation. But after a while I began to realize that I hadn’t
really lost everything-I still had my strengths, talents and dreams. I
took one step forward that soon resulted in the start of SuperCamp and the
Quantum Learning Network. My work brings me much joy and fulfillment, and I feel
it would not have come about without all the experiences (positive and negative)
that led me here.
Feedback Is
an Important Part of the Learning Process
In QLN, we work
continually at building a culture that thirsts for learning and feedback. At
staff trainings we give each other “gems” (things that are done well) and “opps”
(opportunities for improvement). During a recent program, I was particularly
moved by the impact of a session with students. I thought it was masterfully
delivered and went up to the facilitators to tell them how impressed I was by
their presentation. They smiled at me in silence, then after a pause one of them
said, "We're really more opportunities people. What feedback do you have for us
on where we can improve?" I truly believe our staff gets the positive results
they do because they treasure feedback and look at it as a gift.
Mobilize
Failures: Turn Defeat into Victory, Failure into Success
Failures offer us amazing
opportunities when we treat them as gifts. If we're failing, it means we’re
moving out of our comfort zone and taking risks. We're giving ourselves the
chance to learn. We need to be sure to give ourselves credit for that, and
celebrate our successes as well as our failures.
I recently listened to the
life story of Dr. Ted Morter, a leading innovator in health care for thirty
years. He has a scientific mind and throughout his story he responded to
everything that happened to him with, "That was really interesting." No
judgment. No good and bad. He made this comment if something went poorly, or
well. He was fascinated with the outcomes and what he could learn from them. He
continues to be this way and has made significant contributions to the world
because of his curiosity, his willingness to take risks, and to learn from them.
Whenever you fail or succeed, the universe has
just handed you a piece of wisdom. Don't let it go to waste. Mine it for all
it's worth. Ask yourself:
What happened-and why?
What can I learn?
What might I do differently next time?
The only time you really fail is
when you fail to learn from your mistakes.
About the
Author:
Bobbi DePorter
is the author of Quantum Success and other books on learning and
teaching, and is president of Quantum Learning Network (QLN) and cofounder of
SuperCamp. QLN produces programs for students, educators, parents and business
people across the United States and abroad. For more information visit
www.QLN.com
or email info@QLN.com.
