Why Failure Is Your Best Mentor – Turn Setbacks into Stepping Stones
Is Failure the ultimate fear factor or the best teacher? Well, who isn’t scared of failure?
It’s a word that scares almost everyone and hence, we have taught from a very young age to avoid failure at all costs. But, what if we flipped that perspective? What if we started looking at failure as a valuable learning tool, instead of a dead end?
The best business leaders in the world have done so and that is what has made them to be on top of their game. Entrepreneurs and aspiring business leaders should start seeing failure as a powerful mentor that can optimize their journey to success, not something they must constantly dread. If you are among them, what can you do to change that perspective? And what do the experiences of the world’s top leaders tell us? Keep reading to find out more.
Why The Fear Of Failure Holds Us Back
We often think that fearing failure will push us forward, but that is a big misunderstanding. When we fear failure, we hesitate to leave our comfort zone, take risks, experiment, and innovate. Why? Because we are constantly plagued by the thought- “What if I fail and all of this goes to drain?” Hence, failure doesn’t push you forward but rather holds you back. In other words, it paralyzes you, prevents growth and innovation, and traps you in mediocrity.
So, what needs to be done? Successful leaders see failure as inevitable and necessary. Without failure, you cannot learn from your mistakes and do better. Hence, change how you look at failure. Instead of dreading it, start embracing it. Easier said than done, isn’t it? Here’s a list curated for you that will help you understand how failure takes you closer to success.
How Failure Takes You Closer To Success
Certain lessons are learned only through failure. When we succeed, we don’t reflect on the process. Rather, we take pride in the result. Failure, on the other hand, makes us sit down and re-check our process and figure out what we did wrong and where. It helps us re-evaluate our steps, modify and adapt the process, and improve. Each failure offers a critical lesson that takes us closer to success. Thomas Edison’s quote proves this- “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that don’t work.”
What lessons can failure teach you? Consider the following:
Lesson 1: Reveals Your Weaknesses
Failure will show you all your weak spots, help you identify the areas that require improvement, and show you where you need to work and what changes you need to make.
Lesson 2: Helps You Build Resilience
Your entrepreneurial journey isn’t going to be an overnight miracle. There will be challenges and obstacles all along the way. Failure will strengthen your ability to bounce back and approach challenges with renewed enthusiasm.
Lesson 3: Drives Creativity
Failure will push you out of your comfort zone. It will force you to think out of the box and propose something new and innovative. It will make you figure out new approaches and solutions to resolve a certain roadblock.
Lesson 4: Gives You Clarity
Failure is an essential lens that gives you a clear and flawless view of your business processes and approaches. It will help you understand what isn’t working for you and why. That way, you can change or modify an approach and get one step closer to success.
Lesson 5: Makes You Humble
Failure will keep you grounded. The more humble or grounded you are, the more you will be open to feedback and correct yourself. Humility is a vital ingredient for achieving something and failure will help you to do so.
Are there any business leaders who embraced failure as a learning tool? Yes! Here’s what you can learn from them.
Top Leaders Who Saw Failure As A Learning Tool
Steve Jobs
In 1985, Steve Jobs was forced from the very company he co-founded- Apple. One can only imagine how devastating it should have been for his career. But, Jobs didn’t choose to see things that way. He refused to be defined by failure. He used it as a stepping stone to try something different and create something new. He launched two companies, NeXT and Pixar, which were huge successes.
After Apple started struggling with poor sales in 1996, it purchased NeXT for $429 million, and that brought Steve Jobs back to Apple in 1997. His comeback was louder with the launch of iconic Apple products like the iMac, iPod, iPhone, and iPad. He turned Apple into the Tech giant that it is today because he learned from failure.
Elon Musk
Elon Musk is no stranger to failure. The first 3 rocket launches by SpaceX failed and Tesla was on the verge of bankruptcy multiple times. However, Musk did not let failure overwhelm him. What failure taught him was to persist and keep trying. He kept taking his chances and did not stop innovating.
What was the result? Space X is now one of the leading private space exploration companies and Tesla transformed the electric card industry. Musk later went on to take over Twitter and renamed it ‘X’, making his mark in the IT sector too. In his own words, “Failure is an option here. If things are not failing, you are not innovating enough.”
J.K.Rowling
Who doesn’t know her? She was the lady who revolutionised children’s fiction. However, Rowling was greeted with failure more than once. She was a single mother who lived on welfare and used to write manuscripts for her books in coffee shops. Inspired by several rejections and failures, her book was published by Bloomsbury Publishing after the chairman’s eight-year-old daughter thought that it was a good book.
What is the lesson? It was a failure that pushed Rowling to do things better. It made her re-work an approach and create the best version of it. The result? The Harry Potter series became the best-selling book series of all time.
Failure is the most effective teacher that life can give you. It pushes you to confront your weaknesses and challenge your assumptions. If you wish to become a successful leader, start seeing failure as a necessary part of your growth journey. Here are the ultimate actionable tips to start leveraging failure for growth.
Ultimate Tips to Leverage Failure For Growth
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- Reflect and Learn: Take time to reflect on what went wrong. Failure without reflection is a wasted experience.
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- Develop a Growth Mindset: A growth mindset will prevent you from saying “I failed” and instead say “I’m learning” when failure knocks on your door. It will make you look for opportunities to grow and move forward.
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- Don’t Take Failure Personally: Understand that failure is inevitable and is a part of both business and life. Don’t blend your self-esteem with failure and take things personally.
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- Dare To Risk Again: Don’t let failure make you believe that you shouldn’t be taking risks. Keep taking calculated risks because the results will outweigh them.
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- Evaluate and Improve: Take feedback and make the necessary modifications. Let go of approaches that aren’t working, even if they are your ideas.
To Wrap It Up
Start embracing failure because it is the best Mentor on your path to leadership. The world’s top leaders have been successful because they did not want to avoid failure. Instead, they embraced it, learned from it, and saw it as a mentor and an essential tool for growth. Their failures were often the very reason they achieved greatness. By viewing failure as a mentor, rather than an enemy, you can unlock your true potential and become a more resilient, adaptive, and innovative leader. The next time you encounter failure, remember that it’s there to teach you something and is helping you to achieve something better and greater.
Follow this link to discover more about the resilient spirit, strength, and determination that inspire high achievers.
