Interesting to hear Marcus Zusack, author of The Book Thief, talk about the importance of failure. He claimed in TEDx Sydney 2014 that “every success I’ve had has come wrapped in a gift box of failure.” He challenged us to see that failure can be our friend – thinking which is quite contrary to many of our experiences and the stories we heard as we grew up.
And especially when you take it a step further – experiencing failure and then engaging with the resilience to embrace it and use it – openly! For most of us fear envelopes us and we are unable to see failure as the friend it can be. And as our resources deplete so we are called upon to face our fear and importantly consider adjusting our definition of success – this is best done by digging deep in a soulful and purpose-filled way!
To fail, to voice it and own it requires you to “be” vulnerable – strength many of us have not actively owned or even wanted to build or develop.
Importantly we need to differentiate failing from being a “failure”; realising that we can continue to FAIL and yet never be labelled as a “failure”! Difference between the noun and the verb – so beautifully demonstrated.
So how do we better educate our future leaders so they can bring this kind of strength rather than the facades we currently receive from far too many of our existing leaders?
Failing is not something we are educated to cope with and the resilience to bounce back after failure is also not taught – in fact we have made it harder for young people to build this kind of resilience when we give everyone a trophy for participating – what happened to only the people who came first getting a trophy? I don’t think we have found the right balance to promote the gift that failing provides as we learn and “bounce back.”
