According to professor and author of “Experimentation Matters: Unlocking the Potential of New Technologies for Innovationxperimentation Matters“, Stefan H. Thomke, failure is not a bad thing.
It is important to the experimental process. The way to succeed is to double your failure rate.
Thomke said that experimentation matters for learning and innovation. One of his six principles is fail early and often but avoid “mistakes”.
Irish avant-garde novelist, playwright Samuel Beckett said: “Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail Better.”
But frankly, I am not one of those who advocate embracing failure. We all know there are many out there who have read or heard those established guys romanticizing failure as some kind of trendy mythology. Those popular mantras that include:“Fail forward”, “Fail Fast, Fail Often”,“Yay for failure!” and “Fail Better”. They are all just hype.
Never take failing lightly. I have never advocate one should set out to fail from the start. Forget about embracing failure, but instead embrace resilience and harness the ability to bounce back. Stop glorifying blunders, mistakes and errors, but cultivate the ability to adapt and learn from them and move on.
Definitely every one of us want to avoid failure at all costs. Those who are currently filthy wealthy and spectacularly successful can get away with a failure or two, but not those who are just starting out.
Amy Edmondson, a professor at Harvard Business School said:”Failure provides more ‘learning’ in a strictly logical or technical sense” than success.”
Here is a collection of motivational sayings overcoming failure, which you might like to check it out.
You do not have to agree with all these quotations below. The key thing is learn from mistakes and develop resilience to recover from setbacks.
“Failure is success if we learn from it.” – Malcolm S. Forbes
“The greatest barrier to success is the fear of failure.” – Sven Goran Eriksson
“There is no failure except in no longer trying.” – Elbert Hubbard
“I have not failed. I have just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” – Thomas Edison
“Don’t fear failure so much that you refuse to try new things.” – Louis Boone
“Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor.” – Truman Capote
“The only real failure in life is the failure to try.” – Unknown
“Failure can either be a stepping stone to success or a stumbling to defeat.” – Ron Holland
“Greatness is not achieved by never falling but by rising each time we fall.” – Confucius
“There are no failures – just experiences and your reactions to them.” – Tom Krause
“He who looks into the future with the eyes of fear will see nothing but failure.”- Dr O. Ezekiel
“If you’re not failing every now and again, it’s a sign you’re not doing anything very innovative.” – Woody Allen
“If you are not failing, you are not growing.” – H. Stanley Judd
“If you succeed, it’s your fault. If you fail to succeed, it’s also your fault.” – K. C. Prince
“Success builds character, failure reveals it” – Dave Checkett
“Sheer persistence is the difference between success and failure.” – Donald Trump
“Failure is nature’s plan to prepare you for great responsibilities” – Napoleon Hill
“Failure is an event, never a person.” – William D. Brown
“The better a man is, the more mistakes he will make, for the more new things he will try. I would never promote to a top-level job a man who was not making mistakes…otherwise he is sure to be mediocre.” – Peter Drucker
“Try and fail, but don’t fail to try.” – Stephen Kaggwa
“It’s common sense to take a method and try it. If it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something.” – Franklin D. Roosevelt
“Life is all about learning and one of the most memorable ways of learning something is by messing up.” – Dr. Wayne. W. Dyer
“Everyone has his burden. What counts is how you carry it.” – Merle Miller
“In order to succeed, you must first be willing to fail.” – Anonymous
“To avoid failure is to limit accomplishment.” – Will Rogers
“He who fails to plan, plans to fail” – Proverb
“The greatest failure in life is to stop trying.” – Napoleon Hill
“How many people are completely successful in every department of life? Not one. The most successful people are the ones who learn from their mistakes and turn their failures into opportunities.” – Zig Ziglar
“The only time you don’t fail is the last time you try anything – and it works.” – William Strong
“I can accept failure, everyone fails at something. But I cannot accept not trying.” – Michael Jordan
“Part of being a winner is knowing when enough is enough. Sometimes you have to give up the fight and walk away. Move on to something else that’s more productive.” – Donald Trump
“Reward worthy failure – Experimentation.” – Bill Gates
“Failure is just a resting place. It is an opportunity to begin again more intelligently.” – Henry Ford
“Restlessness is discontent and discontent is the first necessity of progress. Show me a thoroughly satisfied man and I will show you a failure.” – Thomas Edison
“I believe in trusting men, not only once but twice – in giving a failure another chance.” – James Cash Penny
“Failure doesn’t mean you are a failure… it just means you haven’t succeeded yet.” – Robert Schuller
“I have had all the disadvantages required for success.” – Larry Ellison
“There are defeats more triumphant than victories.” – Michel de Montaigne
“Sometimes by losing a battle, you will find a new way to win the war.” – Donald Trump
“Be the one thing you think you cannot do. Fail at it. Try again. Do better the second time. The only people who never tumble are those who never mount the high wire. This is your moment, own it.” – Oprah Winfrey
“I’ve learned that mistakes can often be as good a teacher as success.” – Jack Welch
“All my life, people have said that I wasn’t going to make it.” – Ted Turner
“Be courageous. I have seen many depressions in business. Always, America has emerged from these stronger and more prosperous. Be brave as your fathers before you. Have faith! Go forward.” – Thomas Edison
“Losers quit when they fail. Winners fail until they succeed.” – Robert Kiyosaki
“Success is a poor teacher. We learn the most about ourselves when we fail, so don’t be afraid of failing. Failing is part of the process of success. You cannot have success without failure.” – Robert Kiyosaki
“Think like a queen. A queen is not afraid to fail. Failure is another stepping stone to greatness.” – Oprah Winfrey
“What separates the winners from the losers is how a person reacts to each new twist of fate.” – Donald Trump
“For every failure, there’s an alternative course of action. You just have to find it. When you come to a road block, take a detour.” – Mary Kay Ash
“You can’t have any successes unless you can accept failure.” – George Cukor
“All my successes have been built on my failures.” – Benjamin Disraeli
“You always pass failure on your way to success.” – Mickey Rooney
“Defeat is not the worst of failures. Not to have tried is the true failure.” – George Edward Woodberry
“If we try and fail, we have temporary disappointments. But if we do not try at all, we have permanent regrets.” – Bern Williams
“Success has many fathers but failure is an orphan.” – John F. Kennedy
“Failures are like skinned knees, painful but superficial.” – Henry Ross Perot
“Success is the ability to go from failure to failure without losing your enthusiasm.” – Winston Churchill
“Winners lose more than losers. They win and lose more than losers because they stay in the game.” – Terry Paulson
“If you have made mistakes, even serious ones; there is always another chance for you. What we call failure is not the falling down but the staying down.” – Mary Pickford
“There is no failure, only feed back.” – Robert Allen
“Failure isn’t fatal, but failure to change might be” – John Wooden
“Everything you want is on the other side of fear.” – Jack Canfield
“Success is most often achieved by those who don’t know that failure is inevitable.” – Coco Chanel
“The phoenix must burn to emerge.” – Janet Fitch
“If you’re not prepared to be wrong, you’ll never come up with anything original.” – Ken Robinson
“There is no failure except in no longer trying.” – Chris Bradford
“There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure.” – Paulo Coelho“
“We are all failures – at least the best of us are.” – J.M. Barrie