Embracing Failure

Embracing Failure is a mindset, a paradigm, understood by all successful people throughout time, if not consciously, at least instinctually. Anyone who has ever enjoyed sustained success in any field or endeavor has experienced failure, usually great failure. Failures build character and guide us to learn what not to do next time; failures can be great teachers.

Embracing failure is developing an awareness that we succeed only through trying, and that more often than not, the initial tries do not bring success, but bring failures. To become aware, to accept, and to embrace the fear of failure and the failures themselves therefore frees us to be willing to take greater risks more often. To embrace failure greatly improves our odds of ultimate success.

The most successful batters in baseball hit the ball only about one third of their at bats, an even lower percentage of their total swings. Doubles, triples, and home runs come even less frequently. But professional baseball players, like professionals in any field, know that “batting a thousand”, hitting the ball at every at bat is impossible.

Hitting the ball requires an acceptance of possibly, even likely, not hitting the ball. Swinging for the fences requires even more risk, but like in any other area of life, the reward is greater with the greater risk.

As toddlers, still learning to walk, we knew very little fear. We instinctively knew when it was time to walk. Our parents encouraged us. We tried. We fell. We tried again. We fell again. In time, most of us learned to walk, then to run, skip, jump, and dance. Had we not taken those first steps, had we not ignored the pain of the first few falls and bumps and scrapes, we would likely never have learned to walk.

As we grow older, we learn to fear. We fear success, we fear pain, we fear loss, we fear unmet needs, and perhaps most of all, we fear failure. We learn to not take unnecessary risks; we learn to play it safe; we learn to be comfortable and satisfied crawling through life. Most of us. Some of us though, learn to accept the fear of failure and walk through it. Courage is not a lack of fear, but a willingness to walk through it. Courage is faith and perseverance in the face of adversity.

This book then, is about accepting the fear. As we learn to first acknowledge, then accept, and finally to embrace the possibility of failure, we can learn to try anyway. And as we continually practice this mindset and act, act, act, each day, success is assured.