Embrace failure
Failure. It’s not a word many of us like to hear. Failure isn’t a four-letter word, but it’s treated like one. It supposedly has a stench. If nothing else, failure has a number of negative connotations — both perceptually and psychologically.
Failure is more than a word or an idea, though. It’s a force that can mold you. A force that can drive you to strive to succeed. Or a force that can cause you to pull back from a trying something and not try it again.
And, as you can probably tell, failure has been on my mind for the last while. No particular reason for that, so don’t get worried. But a comment by fellow tech comm blogger Ivan Walsh on a post in this space got me thinking. Ivan wrote:
The problem is that we don’t fail enough.
If you want to be a chess grandmaster, then you need to play (and get beat 100s) of times to build up the critical mass of knowledge that’s required.
It’s when you don’t learn from failure, then you’ve got a problem.
Fail, but learn from the failure
I think that the reason we don’t fail enough is because they never allow themselves to fail. Most people tend to play it safe. They insulate themselves from failure by staying within their own comfort zones. They never try to break free. If they do, they do so half heartedly.
To grow as a writer, or in any other profession, you need to experience failure. And how you respond to failure will help determine whether or not you’ll succeed.
Here’s an example: say you’re a technical writer who wants to branch out into copywriting or penning whitepapers. Two very lucrative areas with a lot of competition. On top of that, copywriting and whitepaper writing aren’t as easy as they seem.
You can be sure that your first attempts at banging out copy or whitepapers will be less than spectacular. If you’re doing it for a client or your employer, you’ll probably be rejected. With some level of predjudice. A lot of people will pack it in when that happens.
If you really want to succeed, though, you’ll look at this failure with a critical and impartial eye. Well, once the initial sting of failure fades. Look at why your attempt failed. Asked the people who turned you down why they turned you down.
Analyze. Learn. Make more mistakes. Fail a few more times. As Ivan said, build up the critical mass of knowledge that’s required. Once you do that, failure in that area will be a thing of the past (more or less). After that, you’ll have the confidence to move on to something new.
Thoughts? Feel free to leave a comment.
Update: After writing and scheduling this post, I came across this blog post about engineering a low-cost failure. Food for thought.
Photo credit: Juan David Ferrando from Photoxpress
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Thanks for the kind words.
An alternative take on this is over on Chris Penn’s site where:
“When it comes to goal-only perspectives, here’s the thing – your lack of meta-cognitive awareness about your limitations means that if you give up all the time, if you abandon ship too fast, you will NEVER reach excellence. Ever.”
http://www.christopherspenn.com/2010/02/08/the-danger-of-the-dabbler/
He’s saying that if you don’t push yourself to the limit – and not use failure as an excuse – you’ll never stretch yourself and where are your real strengths.
Ivan
Ivan Walsh´s last blog ..US Dates for 2010 MadCap Software Roadshow – San Diego, Chicago to Atlanta