Tuesday Twist- Failure is a Good Thing?

Written on 7:38 PM by B

So if you read the intro blog you will notice that it was by my failure that our group came into existence. Thank God for failure. One of the greatest lessons I have learned in my short existence is how to deal with failure. With the guidance of mentors and training materials I have come to understand failure, and the root of the resistance towards it. I am a junior in college and I've noticed that up until now failure has been something to avoid at all costs. If you fail too many times, you drop out and go home so that you won't fail anymore. I've been told since a very young age that failure will hold you back and lead to all kinds of punishment. So when I hear the business crowd say to go out and fail as many times as possible and learn from it, it is easy to see where that resistance comes from.

I’ll never forget meeting a gentleman in Barnes and Nobles who said he would never go into business again because of a bad partnership. It seemed that "after a series of blows, his humanity had been reduced to efficiency"(John Eldredge, Waking the Dead). I asked him about his current government job, and he said that he can't complain because it pays the bills. I'm sorry, but I can't live my life like that. I guess he never heard that “Success is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm”. I'm glad I did. I am glad I was well read by the time my sales call came around with the executive assistant described the intro. When she basically told me that I did not speak the same language as upper level management, I could have gotten upset, but I thanked her for telling me that. I wasn't speaking any sort of slang, but there was a certain terminology that upper level types seem to use that I wasn't privy to. Half of it was nerves and half of it was trying to answer questions on the fly. I saw the opportunity within what she was saying. I thought.. what language is she speaking of? How can I learn to speak it? Why does it matter? After that experience, I wondered if I was the only young person in that position. Dan Price(24), owner of Gravity Payments, made me believe that I wasn’t the only one out there. In an interview for Entrepreneur Magazine highlighting Dan and his company , Peter J. Burns III, chancellor of the College of Entrepreneurship at Southern States University “suggests networking with business leaders in your community and industry to learn and share knowledge”. He says that “you get into the mix and just sound smarter. That article was the beginning of major findings that support our mission.

This web 2.0 world is completely new to me. Failures are inevitable, but success is optional. I’m used to being a user, but I always wondered what the other side looked like. I see it now.. It’s on.

How have your failures lead to your success?

-B