Failure Leads to Success

When my son was about 12 or 13 years old, he is 26 now, we sent him to a 10-day summer camp called Supercamp.  This blog is NOT about Supercamp, but I did include a link if you wanted to check it out for your children.  Supercamp is a motivational academic camp, where kids learn note-taking, memorization, writing, organizational, and other skills that will serve them well in life.  Where else would a “Type A” mother send her children to camp?  Swimming, hiking, horseback riding, not for my kids, where is the fun in that?  Just a side note, 2 of my 3 children loved it.

When we came to pick up our son, there were big page after big page of notes posted all over the room of different things the kids had learned while there.  One thing that has stuck with me all these years later is the set of “keys” they had on the wall.  Each key said something different:  They are called The Keys of Excellence.

•             Integrity
•             Failure Leads to Success
•             Speak with Good Purpose
•             This is It
•              Commitment
•              Ownership
•              Flexibility
•              Balance

What great life lessons for our children to learn.  Think about how many children you know that are lacking in some of these qualities.  Today I want to touch on “Failure Leads to Success”. 

As a highly motivated adult, I had never heard that phrase or anything like it before.  Failure Leads to Success.  I spent a great deal of time thinking about it, trying to wrap my head around it.  How can failure at anything lead to my success?

Here is what I figured out.  I have had many many failures, but I didn’t recognize them as failures.  I had only found another way something didn’t work.  From the age of 26 I have been feeding my mind with positive messages in personal development.  For me that was like having blinders on, I couldn’t see the failures so I just kept on going.   But once I turned around, I could see all of the “failures” laying there on each side of the path I had been on.  And, wow, there were lots of them.  Glad I didn’t see them before, they would have scared me.  Oh wait, there is one that says “FEAR”.  That one is not quite dead yet, but at least I can’t see it with my designer blinders on.

I knew what failure looked like.  I have seen it many times on other people.  The person who self-talk says, “I never win anything”, “I’m never going to find a job”, “Why does this always happen to me”, or my favorite, “I tried that before it didn’t work.” This is a person who can’t pick themselves up, dust themselves off, and go at it again, but with more determination.

This is what I would like you to take away today.  Failure = Feedback.  We all know the definition of insanity, right?  You do the same thing over and over expecting different results.  You now know what doesn’t work, so rework your plan and try again, rework and try again, rework and try again.  Maybe you have the type of blinders on that don’t allow you to see a different way.  If that is true, then you are going to need a new pair, and I would like to recommend you rent mine.  Mine come with personal instruction on how to use the failure as feedback, and move through it.

OK don’t tell anyone I told you this, but my husband has a saying that cracks me up every time he says it. “If at first you don’t “suc”ceed, keep on sucking till to you “suc”ceed.”  While he and I are not on the same level of personal development, we both have a 12 year olds sense of humor. 

Failure does lead to success, but it is up to you which path you take on your journey.  Do you turn around when you hit a dead end, and try another way, or do you quit, or go back to the beginning and stay there?  Everyone has to take the journey, it’s up to you on whether or not you finish.