Navigating Failure

You and I are no strangers to mistakes and failures. It’s how we come back from them that counts. This week, my friends and mentors had a big laugh with me on some technical issues I experienced with my first webinar. After a short period of disappointment in myself, I decided to come back strong with a teachable lesson on making small steps to success.

My mistake led to some great ideas, a short Youtube video and other things that will enhance my business. In my video, I talked about doing “….the things you think you cannot do.” That was a quote attributed to Eleanor Roosevelt which reminds us to have the courage and try the things that we believe are out of our reach or next to impossible. When we try new things we often experience fear and undoubtedly, make lots of mistakes. But if you never try, you will never know.

“Do not fear failure, but rather fear not trying”
Roy Bennett

So, the next time you make a mistake, admit it, present a plan to correct the error, don’t blame others; own it, apologize for the error, let it go and move on.

3 Failures That Led To Success

1. Netflix – Reed Hastings was shocked at the late charges he incurred when he returned his VHS tape. Netflix was born after that. His initial business model was unpopular with customers so he listened to them, re-launched and now has over 40 million customers
2. Penicillin – Alexander Fleming left his dirty petri dishes with mold and bacteria and went on vacation. when he came back he saw that his mistake and sloppiness yielded results that identified penicillin. He is known as Britain’s 100 most important people of the 20th century. His mistake has saved millions of lives.
3. The Pacemaker – “Wilson Greatbatch made a classic dumb move: pulling the wrong part out of a box of equipment. It was a major act of numskullery that became a major part of saving millions of lives.”