How would things be different if we thought of Failure as an Experiment full of Valuable information?
Failure does not have to be a negative word. You can learn so much from the things we see as failures.
I experiment all the time with new ways to embellish, add texture, and color to my hardware jewelry collection. I have hundreds of pieces that I considered failures, but I learned to use those failed ideas to come up with ways that will work.
I was recently reading about ways to re-think our mistakes and Tina Seeling an entrepreneur, professor, and neuroscientist, teaches a class at Stanford University on innovation. One of the things she asks all her students to do is to create a failure resume.
Create your own failure resume, just create a list all the things you screwed-up on in your business, academic life, and personal life. For each failure describe what you learned from the experience. Even if you think it was the worst experience ever, you still learned something.
Creating this list through the lens of failure forces you to come to terms with your mistake, and gives you a lot of data about what works and what doesn't.
Share one thing you learned from something that went wrong with your creative business.
Posts
95% of my life is a 'failure resume'. I definitely don't need to write it down. It's bad enough I mentally beat myself up on a daily basis without seeing it in print. That's not meant as a 'pity party', it's cold, hard fact.
ReplyDeleteGreat concept and Churchill quote! I'm always hard on myself so when something doesn't go as planned it usually pushes me harder. Like you I have tried things out that did not sell. It has taught me to stick with what works and expand on those things.
ReplyDeleteThis is a good exercise to do, but it may take me a long while, lol.
ReplyDeleteI was just going over all the mistakes I made last year, and am so glad to move on from them. I learned so much, and find myself in a better place because of them.
I really like this post! Failure is always something people look down upon, but without failure, there can be no greater success. The failures and struggles make us stronger and better, and the also make success sweeter!
ReplyDeleteI love thinking of the things that did not work, as lessons learned, not failures. I don't really like the word failure either, but it's mostly because I think we are not fair about the way we use it. This was a great post Valerie!!! ♥
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