‘Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.’ is a beautiful Samuel Beckett quote, tattooed upon the arm of top tennis player Stanislas Wawrinka. It paints a picture of a proces that is as innate to humans as love: failure. But even though failure plays a key role in how we learn, we often see it as a bad thing.
So why don’t we all just stop thinking like that?
Failure isn’t bad for you, you need it to grow: falling down is only failure if you don’t get up again. We learn from our mistakes - so cliché, but so true - and we need to go trough this proces again and again to achieve awesomeness. So embrace that awful presentation, that horrible article or that hateful e-mail you sent to the wrong person: what you’ll learn from it is much more valuable.
Let’s learn from our failures
Argh, the amount of times you can go over a situation in your head.. You keep repeating the moment over and over and over again, wondering if there was anything you could have done differently to avoid this decay. Woulda, coulda, shoulda. To make mistakes and fail at assignments can feel horrible, but it can teach you valuable lessons about yourselves. Whether it’s how to create a (better) business plan, how to strategize your blog or website or write the best read articles on the web.
Remember that no great woman became successful by doing nothing. Almost every successful businesswoman who made it in the fashion industry has done so by failing, learning from it, moving on and trying it again. Instead of resigning themselves to fate, they let failure motivate them – and you should too.
When you do something wrong, you can be bummed about it for one or two hours. But then it’s time to move on. That doesn’t mean never looking back: analyze your failures to see what your own weaknesses are, so you can do better in the future. What should you focus on? Be honest to yourself. Try to look at the things you’ve actually done in projects or assignments: us humans often hush ourselves by telling that we truly did a great job, even though in reality our work was rather disappointing. Being honest also means accepting failure if it was beyond of your control: if you couldn’t help it, it has no use going over it again and again.
Hey it’s ok, but deal with it
Making a mistake, whether it’s within a large company or as a freelancer, is difficult. Your immediate reaction is that of an ostrich: put your head in the sand and pretend you don’t exist. Don’t! Always try to deal with the situation hands on instead of denying it: 99% of the time it won’t magically disappear. It wil make you so much stronger and happier if you deal with difficult situations right away and accept that your a human that makes mistakes every know and then.
And remember: Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better!
What is something you failed at? How did you deal with it?
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23 comments
BY THIS CHICK'S GOT STYLE
Welcome to CHAPTER FRIDAY! Your online toolkit to an awesome and successful life, curated by Yara (and team of supergirls). Hopefully you are excited about this next chapter, and the natural transformation of fashion blog This chick's got style. Find out more about that process here.
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Yara Michels is a professional blogger, all-round business chick, award nominated marketing author and freelance ELLE writer. She hosts blogging masterclasses, takes on online cases for big companies and is an experienced speaker on online topics. Curious yet?
“Remember that no great woman became successful by doing nothing.” I love this, thank you for the pick-me-up! Rebecca // http://www.revkah.com
exactly what i needed to read after a rough day at the office!
xo, cheyenne
[…] Read the rest of this article: Chapter Friday […]
Great post! I loved reading about failing and getting back up because even though it’s sometimes very difficult to find the strength to rise again we should always do our best.
Erika
http://whaterikawears.com/
Hi Yara & Chapter Friday team.
What do you keep in mind to make good slides? It’s difficult to me to create a nice lay-out, when the content is very serious.
Thanks!
Especially when I want a lot of real life examples, and all the companies I mention have completely different looking (sometimes not so pretty) content.
This is s true! x http://www.justsavxnnah.com
It really is, isn’t it? x
[…] Why failure isn’t the end of the world via Chapter Friday […]
I think I failed at how I handled my first breakup and the ongoing effects of it - I had to deal with them joining my school and my friends after he’d hurt me, and now looking back I wish I’d spent my year doing different things - hindsight is a killer sometimes!
Lauren x
Britton Loves | Lifestyle Food Fashion Beauty - http://www.brittonloves.blogspot.co.uk
It is, but that’s the thing: you can only see it clearly looking back.. Once your’e in the middle of it, it’s not so easy. Ah, that’s life for you… :) Don’t blame yourself, but learn from it for the next time (al though, hopefully there won’t be a next time and you meet the perfect man you can turn old with). x
It’s nice to be reminded of this every now and then. I’m learning to accept that failure is ok, but it’s never easy.
love,
Breathe Me
http://www.breatheme101.blogspot.com
It is one of the hardest things to accept and learn from. But glad we could give you a little reminder! x
I love this post! Last night, my favourite basketball team the Toronto Raptors lost in a very close game to the Dallas Mavericks. It was easy to feel defeated by the loss but this reminds me that we can learn from our mistakes and use them to go forward with our next game! Not exactly a fashion-esque example but still very, very relevant xx
That’s great, Jenna-Mae! It doens’t have to be a fashion-esque example, great we could give you a little reminder ;) x
Something to keep in my mind!
Failure is the beginning!!!
Very true! x
tis post couldn’t have come in a better time, I’m just deciding to make a huge change in my life and career, I’m terrified of failing but if I don’t give it a try I may never succeed! Thanks for these words!
Ah, that’s lovely to hear! Feels great we could give you a little nudge :) x
One of the best articles I’ve seen in a while.
Like Oprah said: ‘Every single mistake is a blessing in disguise.’
Aw, that’s great to hear! Such an inspirational quote, and so true x
Great motivational post!
http://thoughtsinstyle.com