Failure, Been There Done That

As a university student, I learnt about what it felt like to fail. Fortunately, I only failed one subject, but it felt so horrible. The story that I made up about myself because of my failure was worse than the failure itself. If you are hard on yourself, then you will know what I am talking about.

I failed Commercial Law 2. I was a Building Science student, and I was interested in bricks and cement, not law. Com Law, as we called it, was a distraction from the real stuff. So was accounting, by the way. The Com Law exam was what I call a multiple guess exam. If you know the answer, then it is multiple choice; if you don’t, it is multiple guess. The exam was closed book and negative marking. Whoever designed such a thing was the devil incarnate. Out of 5 possible answers, it was nearly impossible to decipher the subtle differences between the choices available. I got 45%. “Fail” was written on my transcript. What more proof did I need that I was a failure. Oh, I nearly forgot, but my mother reminded me, and of course, I had to pay for that course again.

I passed Com Law the second time around and had few close shaves with some other subjects. Life as a Building Science student was about balance. 51% was considered an overachievement, and 49% was just careless. I got lots of 50s. I was able to balance the demands of social and sporting life with the distractions of getting a university degree. I have always been an advocate for the fact that most of the learning at university doesn’t happen in the classroom. Although, getting out alive with a degree is vitally important.

I have since experienced many other failures in life. I’ve had businesses fail. I have failed to close important deals. I have worked on projects that failed. I have had friendships that have failed. I can name a myriad reasons for these failures. What they all have in common is me. But I am comfortable that I was not always the cause of the failure.

Failure is a part of life. Not everything is going to work out. The key is to come to terms with the fact that when something fails, it doesn’t mean that you are a failure.

Recently, I have embraced failure in a whole new way. I take the view that when I am working on a project then I want to fail as fast as possible. Sounds insane, right?

Failing fast is not new; there is an art to it. The art is to manage the risk and payoff of the failure. The word asymmetrical comes to mind. The asymmetry should be skewed to a small risk for failing and a significant gain for being successful. Failing quickly with a low risk where you get feedback and can change direction can result in navigating towards a big success.

Failure can be reframed if you chose to see it in a different light. You can reframe the outcomes as opportunities to learn and get better at what you are doing. Give it a try.

Justin Spencer-Young                                                 Twitter  @fastforwardjsy