What to do when you fail

I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. Twenty-six times I’ve been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed. – Michael Jordan

I love this quote from Michael Jordan who, as far as I’m concerned, is the greatest basketball player of all time. Yes, I may be a little bit Generation X slanted here. It really challenges me to look at how we define success. According to Jordan, success is based on failing over and over again.

It turns out Jordan was just as good at defining success as he was winning championship rings, so his words are certainly worth listening to. Especially if you don’t know what to do when you fail.

True success, whether for an individual or for your organization, is much more accurately viewed as the result of learning from failure. We’re all human beings, not robots (at least not yet, anyway). None of us are perfect. We all have down days. Days when we drop the ball or when a member or a teammate isn’t happy with us. The real key is that we don’t let that down day define us. Rather, we learn from it and, using a growth mindset, evolve from it.

 

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