On Failure

For more than 50 years Jules Feiffer has challenged readers with his razor sharp wit via his skill with cartoons, illustrations, books and plays. In his memoir, Backing Into Forward, he shared his views on failure saying “Success is nothing to sneeze at, but failure, too, offers great possibilities.”

I love that thought. I have been saying for years in my writings, speeches and seminars that you will never really experience the fullness of success unless you first experience the lessons of failure. You and I have been taught through our education, theology, the media and societal norms that failure is bad, it is negative. As a result, we’re given the covert message that if you risk anything, failure will more than likely be a sure outcome. The message don’t take chances, stay on the straight and narrow, color within the lines and be a good girl or boy has kept many of us from failure opportunities that could have changed lives in the most positive ways.

When you think about it, failure is truly at the base of all learning, invention and progress. Isn’t it true that if we don’t know what the wrong way is, we will never discover what the right way is? We need some basis of comparison to know what not to do again; think of the arts, recreation, work, friendships, and relationships–anything that will lead you to a satisfactory life. It is only when you stub your toe, trip, stumble and fall flat on your keester that you really figure out where you went wrong. The timeless sayings, “Get up and get back on the horse” and “dust yourself off and start all over again,” are all about failure and our attitude toward it.

So stop living your life as a flashing yellow light, take one risk a day; it doesn’t have to be a big one. When you do take risks, reflect on how you have grown through the experience. Failure and risk is all about growth and becoming fully human.