Failure & Adversity = Success

Hands up if you like a failure?
No… No takers? 

Hands up if you like adversity?
Still no takers? 

Whether we like it or not, it is our failures and the adversity we have endured that defines our success and happiness. It is impossible to enjoy one side of the coin without accepting the flip side. They are as different from one another as night is to day but one will always follow the other. They are inseparable. 

Let that sink in for a bit…

If you want to be successful and happy you have to accept that you will fail and you will face adversity. 

In Britain we have an institutional culture of fearing failure and when you combine this with the currently prevalent “helicopter” parenting style we are also further insulating subsequent generations of children from their failures and denying them the experience of adversity.

I think this is a recipe for disaster and if we don’t change our relationship with failure at a societal level, we are in big trouble. 

I am proud of my failures. That's right, I have plenty of them. Failure helps me to progress emotionally, physically, cognitively and practically. It is the one measurement that is always honest with you and enables you to grow



Similarly, with adversity, I have faced plenty of it. At times I have tried to avoid it, sometimes I have taken it head on and other times “it” has taken me head on. I lost my Dad just as I was approaching my teenage years. The kind and culturally accepted thing for people to do in this scenario is to offer up sympathy and comfort - and while it's still raw, that is very much needed. However, as you grow, you learn that those experiences shape you as a person. They give you qualities you never had before and you stop longing for the life that could have been and start appreciating the person you have become. 

Despite the obvious benefits of overcoming failure and adversity, there are still a lot of people who choose to ignore it or rationalise it away. Some of the most intelligent people I have met lack the apparent self-awareness necessary to benefit from life's cruel side. With any situation, you have to accept 'it' to experience 'it' and it is through our experiences that we learn. Denial and rationalisation are poor coping strategies for growth because the only bad failures are the ones that you don't learn from.

In business, there is a saying "Fail quickly". Failing in business and science is merely a process of iteration. If you want to achieve things you have never achieved, you have to do things you have never done before - enter into the unknown. You will get things wrong, but you will learn. If you fail quickly you will approach success at a greater velocity. It just requires a mindset change. 

Here's a great example of a paradigm shift:

An employee makes a mistake at work and costs their employer £100,000. Their manager talks to the company MD about firing them for their costly failure and the MD replies: "Why would I fire someone after spending £100,000 training?"

Be proud of your failures people and don't hide from adversity. It will elevate your success and help you feel unbounded happiness.

Thanks for Reading, 

keep trying, keep failing, keep changing the world... ;)

Chancey

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