Lesson 10 - Failure

Coaching for College Students

Lesson 10 - Failure

Hold it – the author wants me to FAIL?  No, I want to be a success.  One of the reasons I’m taking this course is to avoid failure and be a high flying success.

Okay, I’ll do the lesson.

Opening quote:  If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail.

Failure can be good, it can be very good, maybe even a ‘great’ experience!!

There are many stories of very successful people failing – Lincoln, Edison, and many others.  Let’s look at failure as a learning tool:

1.       That didn’t work – cross it off the list and try again.

2.       Maybe you didn’t plan deep enough

3.       You had a plan, and didn’t execute it well enough

4.       Factors beyond my control led to the failure.

Cross it off the list and try again:

Supposedly Edison tried many combinations before finding a solution to the electric light bulb.  It might be that a certain metal or alloy just wasn’t a good filament for a light bulb, or that the partial vacuum in the bulb wasn’t the right combination of oxygen, nitrogen, and other gasses.

Think of going through a corn maze.  As you reach a dead end, you can (should) mark that end off as a dead end and not enter it again.  Trial and error can be a successful tool if there aren’t all that many options. 

So, if you failed, get up, dust off your pants (figuratively) and start again.  If there is a real solution, keep going until you find it.

You didn’t plan deep enough or well enough:

Did you consider all the variables?  What did you overlook?  Is it possible that with a little more research into the situation, you might have a better plan.

You had a plan and didn’t execute it well enough:

If you are working as a team, maybe not all the team members have ‘bought in’.  Maybe you assumed it was going to be a snap and didn’t take the situation seriously enough.  Many sports example work here – where a team or individual didn’t take the competition seriously enough and got beaten.

Factors beyond your control:

Let’s face it, there are times when there are things you cannot control.  

Obviously, you can’t control the weather.  You picked a date six months ago for the company picnic and it rains.  You created a brand new product only to learn that Google took a very similar product to market two days ago.  (and you didn’t know about it and couldn’t control it)

As you and your team approach a problem one of the vital team members gets sick, or is in an automobile accident and that puts you behind and you end up failing. 

Assignment:

1. Think about a situation where you either failed – or didn’t achieve what you expected.  What was the reason?  What did you learn from that?  What might you do to avoid it in the future?
2. Can companies like individuals become remarkable and can being remarkable help avoid failure?
3. When you have failed or done poorly, what was your attitude?  Did you whine?  Or did you approach it with a positive attitude?

Quote for today – Sometimes by losing a battle you find a new way to win the war. Donald Trump