Failure
and Success
At the
back of Forbes Magazine, they used to have a page of quotes. It became
quite well known, and the book compiling them all (Forbes Quotations on
the Business of Life) sold quite well, and is on my bookshelf.
Malcom
Forbes’ quote always lead off: With
all thy getting, get understanding.
Here's
a quote that I think has similar reach and value: The
opposite of
avoiding failure is not the same thing as seeking success.
Put
differently, avoiding risk doesn't guarantee returns.
When
you're young, you can probably get by by just avoiding
failure. I surely felt that way as a young officer/professional. I was
scared enough of failing I figured just avoiding it was enough. And I
guess it was (but Mike reminded me recently that at that time I was
"brash". Go figure.)
But
look - if you get too good at avoiding failure, it becomes its own
goal, a deadly chimera.
Learning
how to avoid failure is a good skill. But it's not what
powers the world. Seeking
success is the engine of
results. You
can't be a force for good by avoiding failure.
Avoiding
failure is the EASY path. Often, bosses and leaders will tell you what
failure is. But if you're working on something new, or
important, failure might be easy to describe, but success is hard to be
clear about.
Learn
the difference early.
Don't
be so afraid of failure that you learn it so well that you become
afraid of seeking success.
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