Saturday, January 2, 2010

Failing Forward in 2010


I have been thinking about failure a bit, as I contemplate my goals for 2010. When I was younger, I never even considered failure an option. Now as an older, presumably wiser person I understand that not everything I undertake works out the way I thought.

Turns out I'm not alone. Here in the 15 Flops of the Decade Business Insider reveals some great big ideas that turned out to be great big failures. Take for instance the "Ownership Society" which sounded great, but yielded a nation of foreclosures and banks with toxic assets. Oops... guess that didn't work out too well...

It made me wonder, how do you handle failure? Do you expect it as a natural part of the growth process or does it shock you when it pokes its head into your life? Do you pour shame and contempt on your self, put on your dunce cap and pout? (really? I thought I had that one patented!) Or do you recognize that failure is a natural part of human growth and development, learn your lesson and move on? Let's agree to fail forward in 2010.

The Bible says it this way...
The godly may trip seven times, but they will get up again.
But one disaster is enough to overthrow the wicked

1 comment:

Alan Veeck said...

Spoken like a true venture capitalist, failure is a natural and necessary as learning is.

Where is that Bible verse? I might be able to use that in my line of work...