In a world where we increasingly work for ourselves, and are
responsible for ourselves, it makes sense to view ourselves like a
start-up—a start-up of one. And that means changing our relationship
with failure. It means iterating, failing, and improving. Our capacity
to try, try, try is inextricably linked with our ability and tolerance
to fail, fail, fail.
We will fail in life—possibly many times. And
that’s okay. It can be a good thing, even. Action and failure are two
sides of the same coin. One doesn’t come without the other. What breaks
this critical connection down is when people stop acting—because they’ve
taken failure the wrong way.
When we stop acting, ironically, we feel a sense of failure more intensely.
Our anxiety increases and we begin to lose confidence in ourselves. It
is only in exposing ourselves to failure that our sense of failure and
anxiety can dissipate.
This is why stories of great success are often preceded by epic failure—because
the people in them went back to the drawing board. They weren’t ashamed
to fail, but spurred on, piqued by it. As the great Stoic emperor
Marcus Aurelius wrote, "Rifiuta la tua percezione di ferita e la ferita stessa sparirà".
(Photo by Nathan Cowley from Pexels)
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