22:25
Faizan
I've often made the observation that too many of the big decisions we make in life are predicated on the avoidance of failure rather than on the achievement of success. In other words, we make too many "safe" decisions because we're afraid of what might happen if we fail. I encouraged my readers to aim higher--to shoot for greatness, innovation, and influence.
But what if you do fail?
Hey, it's gonna happen. If you're truly aiming high (and, frankly, even if you're not), you're probably going to come up short every now and then. Things aren't going to go the way you wanted them to. In other words, you're going to fail.
But what is "failure," really?
If you take out all the judgment and self-criticism, it's really nothing more than getting a different outcome than the one you expected. In fact, some well-known "failures" include (and you've probably seen a list like this before):
• Champagne
• Brownies (the dessert, not the girls in the brown beanies)
• Penicillin
• The pacemaker (the lifesaving device, not Gerry Marsden's old band)
• Super glue
• Chocolate chip cookies
• Teflon
So the next time you get a different outcome than the one you expected--the next time you "fail"--I want you to ask yourself these two questions, in this order:
1. What's the opportunity?
2. What's the lesson?
The first question, What's the opportunity?, is extremely powerful for two reasons: 1) it immediately switches the so-called "failure" to a positive context, which opens--rather than closes--the door to other possibilities; and, 2) it pre-supposes that there is an opportunity. To understand how important this is, contrast this question--What's the opportunity?--with another possible question: Is there an opportunity here? You can probably see the difference already. You may have heard that our brain will answer, or at least attempt to answer, whatever question is put to it. So the key to getting better answers is to ask better questions. If you ask, Is there an opportunity here?, your brain can very quickly come up with the answer: No. Not very powerful. But when you ask, What is the opportunity?, your brain will start coming up with possible opportunities. And who knows--some of them may even turn out to be better opportunities than your original idea!
But what if you do fail?
Hey, it's gonna happen. If you're truly aiming high (and, frankly, even if you're not), you're probably going to come up short every now and then. Things aren't going to go the way you wanted them to. In other words, you're going to fail.
But what is "failure," really?
If you take out all the judgment and self-criticism, it's really nothing more than getting a different outcome than the one you expected. In fact, some well-known "failures" include (and you've probably seen a list like this before):
• Champagne
• Brownies (the dessert, not the girls in the brown beanies)
• Penicillin
• The pacemaker (the lifesaving device, not Gerry Marsden's old band)
• Super glue
• Chocolate chip cookies
• Teflon
So the next time you get a different outcome than the one you expected--the next time you "fail"--I want you to ask yourself these two questions, in this order:
1. What's the opportunity?
2. What's the lesson?
The first question, What's the opportunity?, is extremely powerful for two reasons: 1) it immediately switches the so-called "failure" to a positive context, which opens--rather than closes--the door to other possibilities; and, 2) it pre-supposes that there is an opportunity. To understand how important this is, contrast this question--What's the opportunity?--with another possible question: Is there an opportunity here? You can probably see the difference already. You may have heard that our brain will answer, or at least attempt to answer, whatever question is put to it. So the key to getting better answers is to ask better questions. If you ask, Is there an opportunity here?, your brain can very quickly come up with the answer: No. Not very powerful. But when you ask, What is the opportunity?, your brain will start coming up with possible opportunities. And who knows--some of them may even turn out to be better opportunities than your original idea!
Posted in: business
