I stand with the unanimous agreement that failure is life’s greatest teacher. However, I think it comes with a condition. That is, one will only learn from failure if the failure comes whilst proactively trying to succeed. If someone fails but ignores that failure as detrimental to their success, then it would be impossible for them to improve on that. This is something that I personally struggle a lot with. And it actually has caused me to regress in some aspects. My pride in my intelligence and own abilities has lead me to develop a mistrust in authority (i.e. my coaches and parents sometimes). And I’ve just recently came to the conclusion that accountability is the solution. I can take accountability for any situation I find myself in and for any outcome that is the result of it and this will take the blame that I place on others off. It solves my victim mindset, my ego problem, and helps with my imposter syndrome all at once. Hitting 3 birds with 1 stone. How about that for collateral!
This was mentioned in the lectures as well. An organization can healthily accept failure as long as accountability is present. Accountability is the necessary element to allow people to capitalize on failure.
Another thing that needs to be present in response to failure is constructive criticism. Good constructive criticism is not negative and not positive but neutral. Smart people receive it as such too. They don’t take it personally, they realize: “I’m receiving this criticism because I or someone made a mistake somewhere.” And proactive people’s response to that is: “I will stay focused and I will do something to make up for this mishap.” Or something along those lines. From observing, I’ve found this is what successful people and teams do, and in soccer, this is what the best players do.
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