(This post is part of a series of daily letters from me to my future children reporting from the emerging paradigm.)
Dear Kids:
One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned is to embrace failure.
I grew up very talented at academics. I could put very little effort into things and get great results. I didn’t fail frequently, and I think that actually has made being an entrepreneur a worthy opponent.
Success looks like failure 80% of the time. I’ve learned that you’re winning no matter what as long as you don’t quit.
Either you win or you learn, which just sets you up to get to where you need to go.
In life no matter what you’ll absolutely be disappointed, treated unfairly, just plain knocked on your ass. If you choose not to learn from it, you will continue to be presented the same lessons in different circumstances until you do. So it’s just best practice to learn from it, evaluate it and get better.
I have wasted so much time being too ashamed to embrace a failure and added a lot of suffering to the pile.
This time last year I thought I was embracing failure but now I see how much more enthusiastically I embrace failure now and how differently I feel about it.
Mistakes are stepping stones. You’re going to mess up.
Your greatest fear will come to pass, and you will be okay. (A paraphrased Stevie Nicks quote.)
xoxo,
Mom
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