The Beauty of Failing

Instant Inspiration, the weekly capsules of inspiration

Go on Failing. Go ON. Only next time, try to Fail better.  -  Samuel Beckett

In the Instant Inspiration series, this Sunday I share with you my insights on Failing. The word ‘Failing‘ often has negative connotations. We think of disappointments, sadness, anger, frustrations, embarrassments, depression, and all gloomy days that would come ahead if we FAIL. As an Indian, and I am sure this applies for most people worldwide, I have been groomed by my Family and Society saying “Narendra, Don’t you ever try to fail, Failure is a stigma, Failure is not an option”.  As a result, I tried to do things that would avoid me failing all together that is to say I kept myself within the confines of comfort zone. My friend, how will you grow when Failing is the only source for your growth?  When we expand our limits, that’s when we grow and how do we expand our limits, by taking risks. Risks implies Success or Failure. If you succeed, good enough, Celebrate! If failed, WAO!, now you know one way not to succeed.  Veteran Hollywood Actor, Woody Allen says “If you are not failing every now and again, it’s a sign you are not doing anything very innovative”.
 

Amazing Story of an ABAPer:

Last week during one of our tea-time chit-chats, Manish Kumar, the new ABAPer in my Team was mentioning about one of his fellow ABAPer friend, Vijay Sundaram in his previous organization. Special thing about Vijay was, at work whenever he got a dump in the system which means whenever he was failing in his coding, he used to get excited. A sense of happiness revealed from his expressions. He then used to be lost into digging further in his coding work and try different things before he could finally succeed. Whenever he heard of someone getting a ‘dump in the system’ he was attracted to helping his friends. The best thing was he shared all his learning with everyone. Upon being asked the reason behind such a perspective, Vijay used to say “If things are working as usual, there is nothing for us to learn. Only when things don’t work the usual way, we will learn. And by sharing, our knowledge multiplies.” His PASSION for the work is revealed from the said statement. No doubt he was a STAR Performer in his work. Hats off to you Vijay!
 

You need to have, rather I should say you must have positive attitude towards Failure. Positive perspective on Failing is critical in your path to success. Someone has rightly said “Life is like Photography. We develop from negatives.” Negatives are synonymous to Failures, adversities and setbacks.  John Maxwell in his book ‘Failing Forward’ has shared this perspective, a glimpse of which is the content of today’s letter that I wrote on Tuesday, April 08, 2014. I hope you will take away something good from today’s post. Thank you and Best Wishes :)

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The Beauty of Failing

Greetings to Each one of you,

My Special Thanks to the seven of you from Cardinal Testing Account who liked my email on the ‘Importance of your Work’. This evening I was listening to the audio book, Failing Forward by John C Maxwell, one of my favorite authors. Some of the ideas were so profound. Thought of sharing insights from the book.
 

A few years ago, I used to think, What If I will fail this exam? What will my Parents, my Neighbor, my Society think of me? I just cannot afford to fail? I am the Topper in school, college, how can I fail? And so on… J Many of you might have similar stories. In fact, Most of us are afraid of Failing. We see Failure as stigma and try to stay within the confines of safe zone, and not taking enough risks. Believe me, by doing this we are purely dodging ourselves.  John starts with “In Life, the question is not if you will have problems, but how you are going to deal with your problems. If the possibility of failure were erased what would you achieve?” Powerful! Isn’t it? How one responds to failure determines the difference between the average and the achievers (in Wipro terms, the HVCs vs. the EEs/OSs).

We must embrace failure as regular part of our life. If we are not failing, chances are, we are not really moving forward. John says “If you are succeeding in everything you do, then you are probably not pushing yourself hard enough. And that means you are not taking enough risks. You risk because you have something of value you want to achieve.” The simple rule is, the more you do, the more you fail. And the more you fail, the more you learn. The more you learn, the better you get. The last time you failed, did you stop trying because you failed, or did you fail because you stopped trying? Please think over.

What is Failing Forward? (Vs. Failing Backward)

Failing Backward: Blaming others, repeating the same mistakes, expecting never to fail again, expecting to continually fail, being limited by past mistakes, thinking I am Failure, Quitting.

Failing Forward:  Taking Responsibility, Learning from each mistake, knowing failure is a part of progress, maintaining a positive attitude, challenging outdated assumptions, taking new risks, believing something didn’t work, Persevering.

I would say, celebrate your Failures as much as you celebrate your successes. 20 years from now, you will be more disappointed by the risks which you didn’t take than the ones which you took. Take more risks. Are you trying? Is your enough, Good enough? Think about it.
 

Are you failing forward? I Love Failing (of course, forward). What about You?  Was this email helpful enough to change your thoughts on the concept of failing? Let me know your thoughts.

Have an Useful Week Ahead!

Best Wishes, and Regards,

Narendra Gupta

Failures cause some Men to Break, and Some to Break Records. All the Best. 

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