Rebooting Your Brain

CHAPTER 16Super Myth: Failure Should Be Avoided

What if the one thing you avoided most, something you dreaded and feared, was really one of the most important parts of succeeding?

Most people hate the very idea of failure. They loathe the prospect of thinking of themselves as coming up short, missing the mark, and not succeeding. For many, just the possibility of failure is enough to convince themselves that it is not even worth trying. They think to themselves, isn't it better to set the bar lower, keep my expectations in check, and minimize the risks I'm taking?

Certainly, playing it safe is a great strategy if your job requires defusing bombs or performing brain surgery. Yet for most of us, in most situations, the negative ramifications of failure are really relatively minor. After all, wouldn't you be willing to fall down, skin your knee, and screw something up if you knew for certain that you would succeed in the end? In fact, isn't this the exact reason you walk around each day?

If you take the time to journey back in the history books and really study success, you will find that there is one common thread woven into every story of accomplishment. It is one of people failing their way to success.

At the age of 21, Rowland Macy opened a small retail store in Haverhill, Massachusetts. It was his first of seven failed business attempts. With each failed venture, he learned, adjusted, and adapted his understanding of what was required to make a business succeed. Finally after ...