Failures are failures, but . . .

Chapter 247

“I don’t believe in failure. I believe in growth moments” Moawad and Staples

This is a reframing of failure, or more accurately a reframing of less-than-desired-results, into meaningful lessons of some type. In my world or way of thinking a “failure” is a failure - its pretty unredeemable except the deep certainty that you will never ever do that again. When you review your life choices and actions, these are the events that you remember as failures. I still can’t reframe those into anything other than failures, even decades later.

But you and I can reframe less-than-desired-results into lessons that will result in better decision making and improved actions for later in the day, next week, next cycle, whatever. In fact, lets call these actions mistakes, or poor decisions instead of failures. Because that’s what the majority of them really are at the end of the day.

Mind you there are clearly similarities between mistakes and failures, but the implications of the scale is really the deciding factor. Mistakes are less-than-desired-results kinds of moments, whereas failures are career changing, life-altering kinds of events. The author’s may be correct and all of these mistakes cum failures can be growth moments, but eternal regret is not a growth process in my mind.

I made a mistake yesterday painting the 1966 chassis that we are working on. I got better as I learned from those mistakes. That is a far cry from a failure. I failed . . . hmmmm, exactly. Failures are epic and no one wants to share them. Oh I can regularly share near failures with my clients and show them how they can lead to something better. But my failures, I don’t share those with anyone.