Why Is Failure so Important? Here are 15 Lessons Failure Teaches You!
Hello everyone, what an amazing day to have you here with us! Especially since we’ll be diving into a topic that most of you will benefit from.
No matter what you do in life, things won’t always go your way, you’ll continuously face new challenges and it’s safe to say that you will fail more than once.
But here’s the valuable part:
You failed because you tried something outside of your comfort zone!
Which means, you’re actually going in the right direction,
You just don’t have all the tools yet.
With this type of mindset, we are ready to look at 15 lessons you learn when you fail!
- 1. Failure Teaches Humility
- 2. Other Approaches Might Work Better
- 3. Failure Matures You Emotionally
- 4. Failure Allows You to Try Again with New Information
- 5. You Can Still Fail at Everything and Still Win Big
- 6. Others Don’t Care about Your Failures as Much as You Think
- 7. Failure Shines a Light on Your Weaknesses
- 8. Failure Tests to See If You Really Want It
- 9. Failure Forces You to Get Creative
- 10. Failure Teaches That Life Goes on despite It
- 11. Failure Brings out the Truth in Those around You
- 12. Failure Teaches You to Self-Motivate
- 13. There Are Things You Can’t Control
- 14. Failure Always Comes before Success
- 15. Failure Is Final Only If You Quit Definitely
If you are one of those Aluxers who prefers to watch videos over dull texts, we have got it all covered for you in our YouTube video:
With that checked, let’s get back to discussing 15 lessons failure teaches you.
1
Failure Teaches Humility
We get it, you’ve had a couple of wins under your belt and now you feel like you’re the king of the world.
Enjoy success but don’t lose yourself in it!
That’s where failure comes in. It reminds you that there’s more out there to be conquered and about our limitations.
The paradox here is that: The more humble you can be despite your success, the more respect you earn from everybody else and failure is what drives that humility, so accept it for what it is, put your head down and get back to work!
2
Other Approaches Might Work Better
Life is more complicated than we think. There isn’t 1 universal key that opens all doors, despite what we would like to think.
Failure has the advantage of shining light onto one possible solution that didn’t work. You now have to try a different approach, thus forcing you to expand your skillset. Never limit your ability to overcome an obstacle to only the one idea that didn’t work.
There is more than one way to connect the dots!
Figure out what didn’t work and look for a lateral move.
3
Failure Matures You Emotionally
Or to put it in different words: Don’t be a spoiled kid! Act accordingly.
The same with humility, failure polishes who you are as a person. It gives you a better understanding of the world around you, what works, what doesn’t. It feeds you data based on the outcome and now you can adjust the way you behave in the world.
That’s what maturity is.
Maturity = understanding how the world works & how to navigate it!
Failure is just a crash course on maturity.
4
Failure Allows You to Try Again with New Information
The reason you failed is because you didn’t have enough information, enough skills, enough insight.
Believe it or not, you’re in a way better position to conquer this challenge now, than your competitors or even yourself before getting started.
You now have data to work with, maybe you invested some time or even capital resources into a project, but in return you got wisdom, and wisdom is expensive so don’t let it be a waste!
Use everything you now know and try again!
5
You Can Still Fail at Everything and Still Win Big
Here’s where things get super interesting. You can go from failure to failure and end up winning.
We know how counterintuitive this might sound, but it’s the difference between winning a battle versus winning the war.
Life is a lot easier than war, because generally speaking, you don’t die after pursuing a goal, which is nice!
Jokes aside, but this idea that you can fail at something which in turn pushes you towards something else, just like a game of pinball, shooting from failure to failure until you finally land on something that’s extraordinary for you.
All you have to do, is: Keep on failing at different things.
And you’ll notice life pushing you closer and closer to what you’re actually looking for.
There’s actually a phenomenal book titled: How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big by Scott Adams. It’s one of those books you don’t hear about much, but it offers a very valuable perspective in life. We strongly recommend it to anyone who doesn’t feel like they found “THEIR THING” yet.
Because we know how valuable this book can be, we reached out to our friends at Audible who once again jumped at the opportunity to support our community. If you go to team@frnato.com and this is the first time you sign up for audible, you will get the audiobook version of How to fail at almost everything and still win big for free! The audiobook is 21 dollars, so you’re welcome and special thanks to Audible for sponsoring this segment.
6
Others Don’t Care about Your Failures as Much as You Think
One of the things that scares people the most about the possibility of failure, is how others will react.We’re all scared that we will make a fool of ourselves, that others will see our vulnerabilities and might even take jabs at us while we’re down.
This is why most people never try anything, they’re too scared of what other people will think or say.
Speaking as someone who’s failed multiple times: NOBODY CARES!
Up to a point where it’s a bit frustrating. You’d think more people would react in some way, but they’re not. You know why?
They’re too busy dealing with their own stuff!
This used to matter when you were a kid, when you were in highschool or younger, but as an adult, we’re all just trying to keep ourselves afloat while putting together a boat for ourselves.
7
Failure Shines a Light on Your Weaknesses
And this is more valuable than you think.
You failed because something didn’t go right, something didn’t go as plan, you simply weren’t enough at this point to make it happen.
Once the event is over and you understand that you have indeed failed, you can take a step back and look at what happened. Like a rewind or a post mortem for the whole event.
How did you prepare for this challenge?
What did you miss?
What would’ve made a difference?
What are those things that you could’ve done to prevent the failure?
While going through these questions, you’ll find that there are some weaknesses in your strategy or in your approach.
Now you know what you’re missing!
Either learn them or find someone whose strengths can cover up for your weaknesses!
8
Failure Tests to See If You Really Want It
You’re not entitled to anything!
This life you keep dreaming about in your mind, you’re not yet worthy of it.
Here’s the truth: not everybody can be successful, because success is very hard to achieve, it requires so much effort and sacrifice that almost all people out there would rather settle for less, because the price is too high to pay.
But there needs to be a reward for those who do push themselves and make it! That’s how you show the world you truly deserve it!
Every failure is just another pothole in the road that you have to overcome!
9
Failure Forces You to Get Creative
Here’s a valuable secret in life: creativity comes from the lack of resources. When you have everything at your disposal, you want to play it safe, because that’s probably your best option.
When you don’t have much, CREATIVITY IS YOUR ONLY OPTION!
..and that’s what failure does. It forces you to dig within yourself and pull out every drop of creative juice that will somehow get you going again. That’s why artists who are in pain make the best music, paint the best paintings and deliver their best work.
10
Failure Teaches That Life Goes on despite It
For some reason we have this idea stuck in our subconscious that one failure is eternal. That we’ll be labeled as such for our entire lives, but it’s wrong.
Maybe you did fail, it happened. The next morning when you wake up, guess what the world kept on spinning.
The world doesn’t care about you the way you think it does!
And
Nobody cares about you the way YOU do!
It’s all in your mind, it’s all in your immediate reality. Let the world move on, regroup and then move with it. That’s why having a strong mindset is so damn valuable, it allows you not to be crushed by our own expectations.
11
Failure Brings out the Truth in Those around You
Failure comes with a lot of unique benefits that you couldn’t enjoy otherwise. One of them is the option to sample how people around you really feel.
In times of success you don’t get to see their true faces, because they’re all yes-men, trying to get as much from you as possible, it’s only when things go south that you get to see who’s willing to be next to you for the long run, who you can rely on and who has your back.
Pay attention!
12
Failure Teaches You to Self-Motivate
With a failure on your belt, your left only with yourself. You have to get yourself going once again and never underestimate just how powerful the ability to self-motivate is.
It’s the one thing that can make or break an individual. It’s a lot harder than you think and we have a massive amount of respect for everyone who’s been able to consistently perform well, because it takes so much strength to keep pushing yourself like this even when you don’t feel like it.
Once you know how your mind works and are able to push your own buttons, you become unstoppable!
13
There Are Things You Can’t Control
Sometimes you failed because you weren’t prepared enough, sometimes you failed because you didn’t understand that there are things you can’t control.
Very much like a beginner surfer, the waves will keep pushing you off the board, but once you learn this lesson and no longer fight the waves, you can slowly begin to understand their rhythm, their strength and eventually you’ll be able to ride them.
An even better metaphor for this is the one with the sailboat.
You might not be able to control the wind, but you can always adjust the sail!
14
Failure Always Comes before Success
There is the option of winning without ever facing failure, but it implies winning small.
If you want to win big, there’s always the possibility of failure on the table, that’s how the rules are set up.
The higher the climb, the better the view, but the longer the fall!
The thing is, one failure never stopped any successful person from achieving their goals eventually, so take this moment to think about your own situation and if you’re willing to move beyond this failure or not.
15
Failure Is Final Only If You Quit Definitely
The last point on this list, we believe ties them all together.
Failure is final only if you don’t -or can’t- try again!
That’s when REAL failure happens. When all that time, all those resources, go to waste.
We promised we’ll keep it honest with you. You don’t want to fail, failure should never be an objective. You can only fail so many times, before you either run out of time or resources.
You want to be strategic with your tries in order to minimize the number of failures you experience in life so that you can afford to try again.
Failure happens and if it does, everything in this article will serve you well, but we hope most of you will only have a brush with it on your way to success!
Which brings to the question of the day: Did you manage to overcome a personal failure? What did it feel like?
This is one of those questions where your answers can really add value to the community, become there’s definitely someone out-there going through exactly what you’ve been through who needs to hear your advice. You’re like a mentor to them and don’t even know it yet, and we can’t wait to read your comments on this!
