4. Discussing and taking lessons from failures is what turns adversity to advantage.<\/strong><\/p>\nWhen you fail do you just sit back or do you analyse what happened and think about changing something? This is for me the keystone to one\u00b4s life, relations or project. I have been reflecting on this. One needs some sort of balancing, get out of the non human corrective absolute obsession for the perfection equivalent to short-sightedness. One needs some positive mechanism or based of quoted myth which encourages the long view and the taking of long-term responsibility, where \u2018long-term\u2019 is measured within the balance of perfection and imperfection. What succeeds and what fails?<\/p>\n
If you do things you will see some failures as you take more risks, but this indeed is the ultimate goal, that must be accepted as part of any success or regeneration process.<\/p>\n
Embracing failure as a process of trial and error is key. One lives in an age of eternal beta! Anything needs to be tested in eternal, starting by each one of ours believes!<\/p>\n
I agree with Stefan H. Thomke, a professor at Harvard Business School and author of Experimentation Matters, when he says to business groups, \u201cI try to be provocative and say: \u2018Failure is not a bad thing.\u2019 I always have lots of people staring at me, [thinking] \u2018Have you lost your mind?\u2019 That\u2019s O.K. It gets their attention. [Failure] is so important to the experimental process.\u201d<\/p>\n
In an economy that ostracizes failure. You are outcast when you are fired or when you lose some material advantage. The important in here is that the most adapted you are to failure the best you will be prepared to deal with that. And we live, (probably we always lived) in ages of black swans. So the best is to be candid about the potential for failure and do not be afraid of some risk-taking that any life needs to manage some innovation.<\/p>\n
This comes with a strong warning: It\u2019s never going to be an easy shift. After years of doing same habits, some things, to change, to \u201cfail\u201d, comes with a lot of scars and insecurity. The way to leverage and manage this is to heighten expectations by filtering on individual relations, optimise oneself performance. That is ultimately due to the difficulty in change the reason why it\u2019s easy to opt to play it safe in some kind of routine. But the effort needs to be in the balance between manage risk taking, be prepared to fail and at the same time have one part of our behavior that is wise and plays safe.<\/p>\n
5. Explore, experiment, fail but do it fast, learn and don\u2019t repeat it.<\/strong><\/p>\nAny company in order to succeed only achieves that through breakthrough innovation. That is the same for each one of us we need to be prepared to change. That is an imperative in today\u2019s globally competitive markets world, in which product and business cycles are demander and shorter than ever. Innovation and success requires well-honed and prepared people and organizations. You have to have a dna built for efficiency and speed to mutate and be ready for changing when something feels unnatural (is outdated). So the important is to acquire methodologies of exploring, experimenting, even sometimes be prepared to foul up. Then repeat, but make sure you do it fast and do not fail again in the same issues.<\/p>\n
But the intelligent failures are those that happen early and unexpensively and that contribute with new insights about yourself, your products, customers, ultimately for new business opportunities (sometime new careers) are the ones that should be more than just tolerable. I would dare to say they are key. So they should be somehow wisely encouraged.<\/p>\n
The challenge is how to figure out how to master this process of failing fast and failing \u201ccheap\u201d and fumbling toward success. People and companies have to get good at this.<\/p>\n
\u201cGetting good\u201d at \u201cgetting ready\u201d to manage failure, however, doesn\u2019t mean creating anarchy out of your life or a giving organization. It means me, you, leaders need to create some space in the process, methodology, business environments for safe and experimental taking risks, of course sharing stories of their own mistakes with peers, inside organizations, formulating the need to adapt and change as a living style or corporate culture. It means bringing in new elements for our daily lives, bring outsiders unattached to a project\u2019s past. Ultimately is about to be prepared to open new doors to new ideas, mutation and always mange a strong communication. It means carving out the necessary time to reflect on what is or provokes (provoked) failure, what went wrong or can be wrong.<\/p>\n
And this is not just for corporations but ultimately to any person in their own lives. This process of being open to explore, experiment, change and fail \u2013 fast \u2013 and always learn with it!<\/p>\n
6. The here and now, the way I do it and the way you do it means different things to people in different cultures. Failure for me maybe is not a failure for you!<\/strong><\/p>\nBrian Eno said once upon moving to New York City, that he found that \u201chere\u201d and \u201cnow\u201d meant \u201cthis room\u201d and \u201cthis five minutes\u201d as opposed to the larger here and longer now that he was used to in England and in Europe. This necessary cultural openness is key to the global world one lives. Trust me what north of Europe tolerates or the way it behaves is completely different in South of Europe and I am not even talking about China (and you have totally opposite cultural backgrounds in China. This also continues if you go to different parts of India, Japan, South America\u2026 Somehow people are conservative by nature once it is the best way to deal with destiny the fate of the old Greeks. Thought\u00a0the best you can do with your life is to be open, to new ideas and cultures. Independent of living in most open and less open cycles, multi-cultural diversity and learning process is key to the success on any individual, corporation or country. Trust me the more open and respectable one is towards others, their cultures, differences the better you will deal with change and failure. And this is the most important fact to present success and dealing with failure.<\/p>\n
7. The most essential ingredient of success is how you manage failure\u2026 and fear.<\/strong><\/p>\nFear is by far the biggest enemy of any given person, organization and country. Fear destroys hope and implodes believes. So the best you have to do is to deal with fear. And start now, don\u2019t wait. What are you more afraid? Why? Why do you repeat some negative behaviors? Why do you runaway from something, someone? Understand that and manage to get some lucidity on it and you will succeed. Once one does this failure will start being a familiar process and not a terrible curse. Some other 7 more personal ideas to think about that have been helping me:<\/p>\n
\n- Understand your needs, desires and personality first of all;<\/strong><\/li>\n
- Set clear goals and objectives, and write them out, read it very often and rewrite, adapt them from time to time;<\/strong><\/li>\n
- Developing a behavior program around your goals and needs, what is really important;<\/strong><\/li>\n
- Be consistent with your real goals not other people advice\/s, remember you just live your life;<\/strong><\/li>\n
- Listen, continually learn and be prepared to evolve around your own program and its failures;<\/strong><\/li>\n
- Adapt and mutate but don\u2019t (never) sacrifice your core values, in the end it is what you get! This being\u00a0consistent with your promise, goals;<\/strong><\/li>\n
- Never wait for perfection to come before you deliver the basics and do focus on delivering!<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
What does it mean to be human and alive? I believe one of the most essential ingredients of success is failure. My biggest achievements always came when I pushed my own boundaries and fought my fears. When faced with failure and trust me I failed and a lot of times, I always realized what was indeed important and then moved forward to much bigger achievements and realisation. Failure is part of success irrespective of one\u2019s perspective. Human beings, all of us, should learn to accommodate some levels \/ layers of failure and pick from the failure essential lessons which could effectively reposition the person or the organization. Ultimately more dangerous than having a heart failure, that is ultimately the most terrible issue that can terminate physically your life, is to have a total life failure. So do something about it! And start now!<\/p>\n
If you want to increase your succes rate, double your failure rate. Thomas J.Watson.<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\nThis article was initially published\u00a0in:<\/p>\n
Heart failure or Life Failure and Short Attention Span: 7 x 2 points of reflection<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n