3 posts tagged “failure”

I have had a few posts on charactertics around facing adversity, challenges and playing David like 300, I Like It Rough and then my last post recently on (Pride), Determination and Resilience.

You can imagine how excited I was to read an article by Melinda Beck, from The Wall Street Journal, here on how some very successful household names had to face failure before they became what they are today. The article to me was a "Celebration of Failure"!

• J.K. Rowling's first book about a boy wizard named Harry Potter was rejected by 12 publishers before Bloomsbury, a small London publishing house, picked it up.
• Twenty-seven publishers rejected Theodor Seuss (Dr. Seuss) Geisel's first book, "To Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street."
• Michael Jordan was cut from his high school varsity basketball team sophomore year.
• Decca Records turned down a contract with the Beatles, saying "Groups of guitars are on their way out."
• Walt Disney was fired by a newspaper editor who said "he lacked imagination and had no good ideas."

Here are some snippets that I want to make a note to self:

What makes some people rebound from defeats and go on to greatness while others throw in the towel? Psychologists call it "self-efficacy," the unshakable belief some people have that they have what it takes to succeed.

I only think that a few people rebound and most throw in the towel.

Where does such determination come from? In some cases it's inborn optimism -- akin to the kind of resilience that enables some children to emerge unscathed from extreme poverty, tragedy or abuse. Self-efficacy can also be acquired by mastering a task; by modeling the behavior of others who have succeeded; and from what Prof. Bandura calls "verbal persuasion" -- getting effective encouragement that is tied to achievement, rather than empty praise.

Some quotes:

"I've failed over and over and over again in my life. That's why I succeed," - Michael Jordan
"I didn't fail 1,000 times," he told a reporter. "The light bulb was an invention with 1,000 steps." - Thomas Edison
"Never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never -- in nothing, great or small, large or petty -- never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense." - Winston Churchill

Two big failures I have faced personally are:

1. My application for a student visa to study for my MS during my first attempt (1995) to follow my dream to the US, was rejected twice in 2 days. I could not apply for another two years as it was mandatory after 2 consecutive rejections. [I finally applied again in 1999 and made it]
   
2. My 3 years of being "vocationally challenged" during the downturn after the dot-com days. That enabled me to discover social networking online (starting with LinkedIn where I eventually went to work) since I was living it off-line. My LinkedIn profile only details those days since I value my achievements then as one of the best
   

Finally, as Henry Ford said: "Whether you think that you can or you can't, you're right."

Imagine: The Pursuit IS Happyness

I am a little into creativity - actually maybe more than a little ... borderline obsessed with it. Why?

• It allows one to break conventional wisdom - some also call that wisdom of the crowds or herd mentality
• It enables one to easily differentiate
• It can have a revolutionary (creation) or evolutionary (improvement) outcome
  
• It enables one to explore the unknown and embrace failure, not fear it. If you fail fast, you get faster to your goal and eliminate more steps to your goal
• It magnifies discovery
  

With the above in mind and the following observation by Cathie Black (that I picked up - Yes - in The Wall Street Journal), I just ordered The Creative Habit by Twyla Tharp, a choreographer.

"My favorite lines are about the importance of naïveté, which she sees as a great advantage. Tharp renames it "forever the child" or "the ability to not know." She writes: "You do not know that failure can hurt, or even that you can fail." Not a bad state of mind, in work and in life."

Being a relatively new father and watching my daughter grow closely, I could not agree more.

Furthermore, one of my all time favorite books is Orbiting The Giant Hairball - A Corporate Fool's Guide to Surviving with Grace by Gordon MacKenzie - another artist. He brings out the significance of naivete and all the advantages of being a child. At what age, did you stop raising your hand?

  Imagine: A blog about all things you DO NOT know

From the time I envisioned coming to the US in 1991 to my first startup that I am working on currently, I have become addicted to challenges. I dislike it when it comes too easy and here is why:

• The value and appreciation is directly proportionate to the effort to achieve it
• Your personal growth is directly proportional to the effort as well
• One has to think differently and be creative
• One will tend to meet people who help you selflessly
• One will develop long term relationships
• One learns a lot about themselves and people around them
• One develops a better sense of purpose
  
• It is a great opportunity to bond better with people who are regularly around you
• You learn to leverage existing resources - what you have
  
• You learn "whether you think you can or can not, you are right" [Henry Ford}

• One is encouraged to dream
  
• One learns that conventional wisdom is limiting
  
• One will never get the opportunity to fail and if you don't, you will probably never learn
• It is a humbling experience
  
• You learn that you will not go anywhere by blaming circumstances - it is you who has to deliver and face the consequences eventually
• You learn that attitude is probably your biggest trump card
• Finally, the adrenalin rush of achieving the 'impossible' is addictive

What do you think? Did I miss out anything?

Imagine: "The size of the fight in the dog, not the size of the dog in the fight" [Mark Twain]