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Learning from Failure

By Linda

Whether in life or in business, when things go wrong there are always lessons to be learned from the experience. This week we've compiled some reading to better understand failure.

A while back a young friend failed her first attempt at her driving practical.

Ironically, it wasn't a case of doing something wrong.  She did what she had been instructed to do, which was stop when the light turned red.  Unfortunately, in this case, it was in the middle of the intersection ....

The assessor saw the funny side, telling her it wasn't often people were failed for doing the right thing.  This time though, the right thing was the wrong thing for the time and place.

Up until that moment she felt she was doing really well and was going to pass. I asked her "So what have you learned from this?" She thought about it and replied that she perhaps needed a bit more practice.

Because for every failure in life there is a lesson to be learned if you are inclined.

Most successful business and sportspeople will tell a similar story.  For all the success - the awards, the achievements, the medals - there have been total bombs.  The own goal. Ideas that should have worked but didn't.  The mis-steps and mis-readings relating to customer requirements or the state of the market. Things that go spectacularly wrong.

The thing with successful businesses is that they learn from the failure, pick themselves up and move forward.

My young friend did the same, scheduled another test, this time with some additional, hard earned, practical knowledge, and all went well.

It's all about the attitude to failure.

Below is a compilation of some library resources that guide readers to a better understanding of failure and the lessons (both business and life) that can be learned from the experience.

Entrepreneur Hope Horner offers four strategies for coping with failure and using it to move forward successfully while this Forbes article shares the lived experience of leaders who have learned from failure.

A recent HBR article talks about "productive failure" and how it can help a team learn and grow.

Elizabeth Day, author of two of the books below, has her podcast, How to fail, available via several platforms.

If you need more information please contact the Prosearch team at the library.  We can help you find information across a range of perspectives and resources.  All enquiries are treated in confidence.