Campus To Career

Failure:  It’s what we’re all afraid of in life.  Ok, not everyone, but you know what I mean.  Why?  Shouldn’t we expect failure on the way to success?  After all, there aren’t many people who make it big without a few, if not many, failures throughout their journey.

Remember the old Looney Tunes features with Wile E. Coyote and the Roadrunner?  Wile E. was an educated guy who tried in every way imaginable to catch the infamous Roadrunner.  This quest was of course, made possible by Acme, the coyote’s most trusted supplier of spy gear and roadrunner traps.  He must have tried thousands of ways to catch the Roadrunner, coming thiiiiiiiiis close, yet failing every time.  Did that keep him from ordering a new flight suit or rocket-propelled roller skates for his next ingenious plan?

Nope.

Here’s a short video that helps make my point:

I think we can all learn a few things from Wile E. Coyote.  Here are a few:

Learn from it.  Let’s be realistic with ourselves.  We’re going to fail.  We shouldn’t let that get the best of us.  Instead, try to learn from your failure.  You know what worked and what didn’t.  Use that knowledge to build a better plan to generate a more positive outcome.  Have you ever really just flunked an interview?  Ask for feedback and put it to good use.  The next one will be better!

Go for it.  Most people are afraid to fail like I mentioned before.  That very fear keeps us from simply going for it.  Assume that you’re going to succeed.  Set the right expectations and go for it.  You’ll never know how it turns out if you don’t go for it.  Take a chance, a leap of faith.  You can only learn from this.

Keep moving on.  Keep moving on.  I say this twice for a reason.  Don’t let failure get you down.  If you focus too much on what you did wrong, you’re going to miss what you did correctly.  Keep moving forward with the knowledge you’ve gained along the way through failure.  It’s a learning experience for everyone!

As Jason Seiden says in his blog, “fail spectacularly.”  Learn from it.  Go for it.  Keep moving on.                   

I hope you’ve enjoyed this short (yet powerful, I hope) post.  If you have, please pay it forward by sharing with a friend or coworker.  I don’t make any money by writing this blog and all the resources are free.  Help me spread the love by sharing with someone!  If you like the blog, please subscribe.  You can also find me on Facebook: www.facebook.com/campustocareer.  As always, thanks for reading!

Photo credit: BitMob