Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

When All Else Fails … Try Again!

Business is full of success stories, yet it’s also full of heartbreaking stories of failures, setbacks, mistakes, and miscalculations. We will all have our days of glory, but to get there, we must overcome obstacles along the way.

I remember attending a baseball camp a long time ago. The first day of camp, the coach told us that baseball was a game of perseverance; that even the best hitters only get a hit three out of ten times at bat. That means that 70% of the time, the best players fail to get a hit. The coach stressed that learning to deal with that failure was the most important part of becoming a good hitter.

It’s the same in business: The more we learn to deal with our failures, the more we will succeed. We can’t afford to wallow in defeat, as focusing on the failure itself will inevitably breed more failure. We need to develop an ability to use setbacks for the learning opportunities they present. Just like a hitter uses his first “at bat” to learn how the other team will pitch to him, our setbacks in business give us the irreplaceable experience of being able to try something new. We can learn tremendously from those setbacks if we allow ourselves to experience them as opportunities.

So, shake it off and move to the next opportunity because brooding won’t change it.

Early in my career, I used to let these setbacks get to me—so much so that I’m convinced they kept me from seeing the next opportunity. While I can’t tell you I’ve learned something from every failure, I can tell you that in my 25 years of business, I have learned more from my mistakes than from my successes.

Recently I attended a national conference for a professional society to which I belong. One of my friends, whom I respect and look to for advice, told me he recently failed the certification exam that is important to our industry. I was surprised by the news, but even more surprised with his reaction to his failure. He told me he was going to quit the organization and focus only on his work. My advice to him was, “You’ve got to see the pitcher; you’ll get a hit next time at bat.” I’m not sure what he’ll do, but I hope he reads this column and uses it as motivation to take and pass the exam the next time around. He’s an extremely intelligent, articulate individual and I’m convinced he was just having a bad day the first time he attempted it.

When I was in college, I failed Creative Writing, yet here I am now; I’ve written a book and I get to write this column. I used that initial failure as motivation to study harder, practice harder, and become a better writer. I imagine that if I’d given up and accepted failure, my career would be quite different.

Every time my firm competes for a project or assignment, but is not selected, we use the failure as a learning opportunity. We request a debrief on the selection process, ask what we can do better next time, and ask what separated the winning submittal from ours. The things we’ve learned from these experiences have made us a much better firm.

I once read about a company that celebrated courageous failures on a grander scale than it did simple successes. The company’s culture instilled its staff with a “try it” attitude, and helped them not to be fearful of failure. The organizational belief is that if you put yourself out there, try for something yet come up short, you are better off than just succeeding at something that you have done over and over previously. That attitude is fantastic, and I’m certain if more of us adopted it, we’d surely become more successful.

I’d like to hear from you:

• Can you think of a time when you failed at something that made you better and more prepared for the next challenge?

• Are you experiencing a difficult challenge right now that is testing your resolve?

Until next week…

Craig

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