Admit it – you fear failure. Maybe you don’t worry about failing or dwell on your failures as much as others do, but that doesn’t mean you wake up every day and say “I’m willing and ready to fail!” No one likes to fail, but it’s inevitable.
Here’s the good thing about failure: With every fail comes a lesson learned. I’ve talked a bit about fear and failure before on here (read five things to avoid if you want to succeed and getting naked to find success for more on those topics), so I’m not going to dive into why you shouldn’t be afraid to fail or what actions can help you find success.
Instead, I want to encourage you to be more open about your failures with the intention of helping others who may one day be faced with a similar situation. A fail will always suck, no matter how you color it. But, with every fail comes a great opportunity to learn, and then teach, a lesson. Wouldn’t you rather look back on a failure and be proud that you were able to turn it into a lesson learned rather than look back on it and feel nothing but shame and remorse?
I was recently asked to share a career fail on the new site, Fail Detroit. I think this is a brilliant idea because there are case studies galore on the Web, but not enough stories about failures. I shared the story of my first internship at a PR agency, which also happens to be my biggest career fail to date. It has nothing to do with skill. It’s all about not paying attention to red flags and gut feelings. I could have avoided three months of hell and had a positive internship experience at a different company if I wouldn’t have ignored the warning signs I saw during my interview.
I still feel a sting of pain whenever I think about the experience, and I probably always will. But whenever I talk about it, I always make sure I share the important lessons I learned rather than simply saying it was a horrible experience (or worse, badmouthing the agency and the president – who was the real reason why I had such a terrible experience). That’s why I was more than happy to share the experience on Fail Detroit. I want the story to remind people to always trust their instincts. If something doesn’t feel right, it’s for a reason.
What about you? I’m sure you have some career mistake/fail stories you can share. Just think – by being brave and talking about your mistakes, you can help someone avoid a similar fate in the future. You sharing your fail story may help someone else succeed.
If you’re in the Detroit area, consider submitting your story to Fail Detroit. If you have your own blog and it works with the type of content you write about, share your story there.
Maybe you’re not ready to blog about your fails and share them with the world. That’s quite alright. You can always go the old fashioned route and tell someone in person. Share your story with a coworker or someone you’re mentoring.
If you want to continue the discussion here, feel free to share your lesson learned from a fail/mistake in the comments.