“Failure is only the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.”
– Henry Ford
For many of us, we define failure as evidence that we aren’t good enough.
Which is why it’s so scary.
We’re constantly on the lookout for feedback that says, “You’re not good at this.”
But what if failure were actually about not trying? About giving up?
And what if success were simply about working long and hard toward something you care about?
Consider Sara Blakely…
At one time, Sara Blakely bombed the LSAT and at another time, she was told she was too short to play Goofy at Disney.
Now, she’s the founder of Spanx, a clothing brand for Women with a net worth upwards of $1.2 billion.
Blakely gives a lot of the credit of her success to the way her dad raised her — encouraging her to fail and celebrating effort over accomplishment. check out this clip. Or read the quotes below…
“Growing up, my dad used to encourage my brother and me to fail. At the dinner table, he would actually ask us, “What did you fail at this week?” And if we didn’t have something to tell him, he would actually be disappointed.
I can remember coming home from school and being like, “Dad, I tried out for this thing and I was horrible” and he’d be like “Way to go!” and high-five me.
It was such a gift what he was doing — I didn’t realize it at the time but he was redefining failure for me. Failure became not about the outcome, but about not trying.”