It is human nature to fear failure. Fear it so much we are not even allowed to talk about it. It is engraved in our very being to not say the F-word.
Failure and rejection have always been considered negative terms, in every aspect of life.
I don’t think we ever look at it this way- not achieving success is not failure or rejection; it is simply the lack of it!
When starting out, we usually forget that success is nothing but merely a byproduct of repeated failures, which implies, success is merely a byproduct of repeated trying.
Failure is the main ingredient in the recipe of success.
“Fail early, and fail often”, How many times have we heard people use this statement? It is overused, abused, and mostly, never followed.
The notion around failure and rejection should be “Fail early, fail often, but never fail for the same reason twice.”
Because failing constantly forces you to analyse your goals and vision, giving you an insight into what can be better the next time. Constant improvement is the motto behind failure.
Only when you are self-aware, are you fully open to accepting rejection. And failure brings about that self-awareness.
“Fail early, fail often, and change something every time you fail” not only sounds more logical, it is also an important aspect of life.
There are a few very important things early failure can teach us.
Failure teaches you not to take things personally. Sometimes when reflecting on failure, rather than finding the root cause and enabling change, we end up blaming ourselves and taking everything personally. What needs to be understood here is that what you create matters, what you give matters, and that people don’t have time for a personal vendetta. Being impersonal about failure and finding solutions and improvement saves time, mental energy, and self-esteem.
Failure teaches you not to take things for granted. More often than not, we are sure of our gifts; so sure, we end up being cocky about them. Failure teaches us to be more responsible with our acts. It teaches us how everything we have needs so much more, and there is always room for improvement. Failure brings us back to our roots.
Failure teaches you to not play it safe. When we think about failure, we realise business comes with a risk-reward situation. Much like life, business is giving in all because playing it safe is too safe, and thus, too mediocre. Failure teaches you to get out of the mediocre.
Failure and rejection make you smarter and more experienced. When you fail, you gain a foresight. And that cannot be learned in school. Foresight enables us to plan out better, seeing future obstacles and hindrances early on; building future foundations with the rock bottom we have hit is what failure teaches us.
Mostly, rejection and failure make you more humble; they make you realise that no matter where you go, and no matter where you are- stay grounded and always remember where you started.