Let Failure Accelerate Your Growth!

Ever since we were kids, it’s been driven into us that failure is bad! As adults, and particularly as business professionals, we need to get over this childhood myth. Don’t get me wrong – if you’re my surgeon, or if you’re working at SpaceX on the Falcon rocket system, by all means, please get it right! But the last time I checked, no one is dying on my shift!

Newsflash: No one is immune to failure. We all experience setbacks, disappointments, frustrations, bruised egos, failed projects and stumbling blocks in our daily journeys. The difference between truly resilient people is their growth mindset. They see failure as a learning and growth opportunity and don’t let it get them down, set them back, or deter them from their focus. They find lessons hidden within difficult moments and use them to help overcome their next challenge.

If you’ve made a mistake or something has gone disastrously wrong, make the time to reflect, ask yourself constructive questions, understand what you did right/well, and really dig into where your growing edges/opportunities to improve next time may be? If you look for lessons in every setback, you’ll begin to think like an entrepreneur, a scientist, an inventor, and truly great leaders – all of whom instinctively know that a path to any success is often paved with all kinds of failures.

If you’ve ever been fired, had financial problems, breakdowns, and relationship endings, you know those who succeed find a way to pick themselves up, dust themselves off, not dwell in all that’s wrong, and find a way to persevere – armed with greater knowledge, insights, wisdom.

How do you learn from your setbacks?