Column: Failure is not final

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Commentary by Jim Serger

The late legendary basketball coach John Wooden,once said, “Failing to prepare is preparing to fail.” Everyone hates the concept of failing — it’s as if we are so worried about not failing, that we fail to even start a project because we might fail, or we jump all in on a project or mission. We give it 100 percent effort and still fail.

We fail to complete a marathon, we fail at getting the big job we wanted, and we fail at getting a book published. However, the concept of failing really should be seen as Thomas A. Edison saw it:  “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” Here’s a man who looked at his failures optimistically. He looked at them as a payoff or a small reward to keep striving to be successful — which in part allowed him to invent the phonograph.

Failure is not final. Success comes from multiple failures. Your mindset sets the tone for success — failure as well can set your tone. A pessimist will always be trampled on by an optimist. We can will our way to success when we laugh about a failure; we learn from it, we understand it and we adjust our sails and pursue a different route to our goal. All because we have learned from our failures.

Failure is good for us all. It allows us to try something new, to fight our way to the next level and achieve more in the end. Success is right over the hill. It’s only when we give up that we have failed.


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