Fail Forward

I remember when I was in school, whenever I scored well in exams, I would go home brimming with joy and pride, waving my record card high up in the air in front of my parents asking for my reward; whereas, whenever I scored poorly in exams, I would tip-toe myself back home, pretending that it's just another sunny day, until my parents asked for my report card.

In Hokkien, that's what we call "chow kuan", which loosely translates as "loser's attitude" in English. Haha  :)

Here's the irony in life. We grew up learning about the success stories of great personalities, such as Thomas Edison, Abraham Lincoln, and Michael Jordan:

“I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” ~ Thomas Edison 

“Success is going from failure to failure without losing your enthusiasm.” ~ Abraham Lincoln 

“I have missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I have lost almost 300 games. On 26 occasions I have been entrusted to take the game winning shot… and missed. And I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.” ~ Michael Jordan

In short, we know that in order to succeed, we must first go through and learn from mistakes and failures.

But yet, most people are still so afraid of making mistakes or embracing failures. This is made even worse by the prevalent and non-supportive culture in our society which tends to punish or look down cynically at people's mistakes and failures, thus further affirming the negative belief.

So what can we do about this?

Honestly, there's nothing much we can do to change what others think. But we can start from ourselves, creating a more positive and conducive environment for people to learn how to fail forward by forming an association with the right people who understand and advocate the success principle of "failing forward".

Start by reading this splendid article and share it with others.
Link: http://www.forbes.com/sites/mikemaddock/2012/10/10/if-you-have-to-fail-and-you-do-fail-forward/

"The last time you failed, did you stop trying because you failed, or did you fail because you stopped trying?" 

~ John C. Maxwell