Ten
Thousand Failures
by
Michael Angier
Thomas
Edison once mentioned to reporters that he had tried over 10,000
materials as filaments for his new invention, the electric light
bulb. One reporter asked how the young inventor maintained his persistence
in the face of so much failure. �Failure?� he responded. �I didn't
fail. What I did was successfully eliminate 10,000 elements which
were unacceptable for my needs.� What most people would call failure,
Edison saw as the process of invention.
The
ability to accept so-called failure simply as information and then
make corrections without self-invalidation is rare. However, it
is a critical key to success. Accepting defeat or criticism is never
easy, but it is those people who take feedback and make corrections
who create lasting success.
Everyone
fails. Everyone makes mistakes and has painful experiences. Most
people just complain about them, justify them or blame someone else.
The self-actualized person learns from them, adjusts, and goes on.
No self-condemnation. No pity parties. No blame. Just awareness
and correction. It�s not what happens to us but rather what we do
with what happens to us that makes the difference.
How
do we make corrections without self-invalidation? Here�s an example:
If we were to fly to a distant city, our flight would be off course
more than 90 percent of the time. Constant feedback and correction
would be required to reach our intended destination. As we drift
off course, the guidance system reports to the autopilot, and the
autopilot makes the necessary adjustments. As our altitude drops
or increases slightly, the same thing occurs. This feedback and
correction cycle continues over and over again hundreds of thousands
of times throughout the course of our flight.
Can
you imagine such an exchange of information between two people?
After about the hundredth time, the pilot would probably lose it
with the navigator. �Stop it! Just shut up and leave me alone. I�m
doing my job!�
But
the autopilot never gets angry at the guidance system for its constant
correction and the guidance system never makes the autopilot wrong
for being off course. It is the ultimate in correction without invalidation.
We can all learn from this analogy. Being off course doesn�t mean
we are wrong or bad. It�s just information that we can use to make
a correction.
Many
of us use computers. When we don�t get the results we want, we often
blame the computer. But usually the problem is not in the hardware;
it�s in the programs or in the instructions we give it. The computer
can be flawless, but if the instructions are faulty, the intended
outcome will be undesirable. Although we may get frustrated with
computers, and with ourselves for errors, it�s counterproductive
to blame the system or ourselves.
Like
computers, we humans often run programs (belief systems and strategies)
which result in failure. We frequently make ourselves wrong for
being less than perfect. We berate ourselves for our mistakes or
don�t admit our mistakes be�cause that would mean we're bad. We
spend huge quantities of emotional energy in justifying or feeling
guilty rather than looking for different approaches that will bring
success. To overcome adversity, we must redirect this energy in
better ways.
Self-invalidation
is a debilitating disease. It keeps us from accomplishing much that
we would attempt if we weren�t so afraid of failing�of being wrong.
More is lost from not doing something than from trying and failing.
The price of doing nothing is high. The money you don't
make is more than the money you may lose.
As
Robert Schuller asks, �What great thing would you attempt if you
knew you couldn�t fail?� It�s worth serious contemplation because,
in fact, there is no
failure.
Like
Edison, we need to view our errors as part of the process of success.
If we learn to embrace them and use them, they can become our tools
instead of our enemies.
Success
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