This Devil’s Advocate post is really borderline Devil’s Advocate because it’s not entirely in the spirit of taking a position against something that’s considered prevailing wisdom. You could say that the prevailing wisdom is that failure is bad, success is good; but as the advocate I’m not advocating that you should try to fail. I’m merely saying that failure itself is not a bad thing, much like success itself is not always a good thing; it’s all in context.

Either way, failure should not be seen as always a bad thing because it’s not. Failure teaches you how to better approach situations in the future - they are learning experiences. Failure also teaches you how to deal with failure, how you might not always get what you want but that shouldn’t stop you from trying.

Failure isn’t good, but it’s not always bad.

Learn From Your Mistakes

There’s an often told story about IBM CEO Tom Watson that really drives this point home. It’s said that in the 1960s, he called an executive to his office after the executive’s venture lost the firm $10 million. Watson asked the executive why he thought he was being called into the office. The executive assumed he was being fired. Watson’s response? “Fired? Hell, I spent $10 million educating you. I just want to be sure you learned the right lessons.”

There is only one place where failure is the end - that’s on a battlefield during a time of war. Everywhere else, thankfully, failure is merely an opportunity to learn from your mistakes and try again. No where else is this more evident than in the lessons of love. Little boys show their admiration for little girls by calling them names, pulling their hair, and throwing gum at them. Clearly this does not work. As little boys grow and mature, they quickly learn that girls like to talk, walk on the beach, and do all sorts of other boring things with their loved ones. Imagine a man who never “failed” as a child and start calling women names, pulling their hair, and throwing gum? I think you see my point.

With Risk Comes Reward

You can’t hit home runs unless you swing for the fences. Many a ball player have made very nice careers for themselves playing role positions and getting on base however they can, but not many last as you can always find someone faster and stronger to do that. If you want to hit home runs and get your jersey on the best seller list, you’re going to have to go hard after something and take some risks.

With risk comes reward and a higher probability of failure. In the IBM story, that failure cost $10 million in the 1960s. However, think of all the ventures IBM did succeed in launching and how much those could’ve cost had they failed. You place your bets with the best information you have, you work your tail off to try to get them to work, and whatever happens happens. You do what you can but sometimes circumstances are beyond your control. Don’t let those circumstances and don’t let the fear of the unknown stop you from doing anything. Don’t let fear make your decisions.

Don’t Be Afraid of Failure

In movies, characters say “failure is not an option!” In life, failure isn’t necessarily an “option” but it’s a potential result. Sometimes it’s not the worst result though! Failure today is better than a long drawn out failure that prevents you from focusing on something else. Think about stock investments for a minute, how many losers are you holding right now? Studies show that people hold onto losers far longer than they should and every dollar trapped in a losing position in one that can’t be invested in a potential winner. I’m not saying you should go out and sell all your losses and go elsewhere, but some of those are losers that will never recover. Anyone holding onto shares of Amazon from the dot com boom? Chances are Amazon won’t get back there for a long long time.

Failing quickly, and learning from that failure, is better than failing for a protracted period of time. Sometimes there is still hope and dragging things out will put you in a better position to succeed, but sometimes it’s stubbornness and fear of failure that drives you to continue down a failed path. Be able to differentiate the two.

Fear of failure prevents many people from pursuing the things they want out of life, don’t let it dominate you.

(Photo: pbo31)

The talk of middle class has come up a lot lately, in part because there’s no clear definition of middle class, but Lazy Man shared his thoughts this week on the topic and I thought this quote was a gem: “… unless you love what you do exchanging time for money is a losing proposition.” I think that many of us grew up in situations where money wasn’t abundant and saw education and a job as a way to more money. Whether it was brilliant parenting or actual fact, I grew up thinking we didn’t have much money (books were my toys) but we still considered ourselves “middle class” be we didn’t go hungry, we didn’t struggle to pay bills, and we were otherwise living comfortable and happy lives by any standards. As a result, I saw a job, which was attained through strong academic performance, as the way ensure I could provide for my family. The point of getting a job was to earn money, survive, and then thrive. In my jobs, I was exchanging time for money for something that I enjoyed but can’t say I loved. Now I am exchanging time for money for something I do love and I think I’m much happier because of it. (The italicized sentences in the paragraph were ones that were originally accidentally deleted in the editing process when I first published this post)

Plonkee has a short story about how she keeps forgetting her keys at work and how stupidity is costing her dreams, one £6 (or £1.50) chop at a time. I think it’s a telling story because a lot of people do this, we go through our daily process and often hit these little financial road bumps. If we’re tired, we just plow on through with the power of the purse; if we’re not, perhaps we make the long trek back to get our keys. However, we hit these road bumps all the time. So the solution really is to look back at your daily routine and see if you can plow through the road bumps without the use of money. So think of the last “stupid” expenses you had and how you can avoid them next time.

Sometimes it’s called “F U money” (you can figure it out) and sometimes it’s called “walk away money” (as in walk away from it all), but Trent discusses how you can calculate that number (three versions, only the last of which I consider F U money). I think it helps with goal setting and gives you something to shoot for, rather than day-in and day-out of work work work. Like Lazy Man said, you can’t exchange time for money… you lose every time.

Anabelle from Debt Free Revolution did an entertaining BlogTalkRadio show with Duane Lester with this description “Becoming debt free is a long term goal of mine, and honestly, it should be for everyone. Anabell of Debt Free Revolution talks with us about how to accomplish it.”

And I leave you with this cute story from Mrs. Micah from her one year anniversary.

Okay I lied, I just saw this great video on failure:

(Photo by benimoto)