Yesterday evening I hosted a FuckUp Night with my female entrepreneurs´ network. „FuckUp Nights“ is a global movement where stories of failed businesses and projects are told, questioned and celebrated. I found the idea brilliant so I implemented it last night.
Here are a few key take-outs for you.
1) We definitely need to create more opportunities to talk openly about failure.
We talk about success ALL THE TIME. It is as if success came alone. It doesn´t.
“Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor.” –Truman Capote-
By talking more about failure, we are more exposed to it and it becomes natural to fail.
2) It is actually not easy to talk about failure.
Why is That?
We idealize success so much, it is very difficult to talk about failure. Failure seems to be the negative side of the coin. The ugly side, that no one wants to look at. However, we often forget that failure and success are two sides of the same coin. We learn the most from our failure.
It is time to stop mythifying success as a chain of wins. In fact Winston Churchill did put is perfectly when he said that “Success is walking from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.”
3) We all make mistakes.
That is a big revelation around failing.
When people are successful, no one considers behind the scenes. We only see the glory that comes with some sort of successes. Did you know how Walt Disney´s Micky Mouse was born? Read this post to learn about a few situations where Walt Disney failed. I can tell you that Micky Mouse was born out of one of those failures.
We all fail. That feels really good. It leads automagically to more compassion for each other.
4) Failure is not the challenge. The most difficult is to get up again and create a new future.
The bigger the failure the more difficult it is to stand up but the higher the chance to land a big learning.
There is a lesson in every failure, that you would not have learned didn´t you make that big mistake. Failure aims at teaching us to become better, shinier, stronger. It is important to seek the lessons in our mistakes and to find the strength to get up again.
„Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising up every time we fail“. Ralph Waldo Emerson
5) Last but not least: we should celebrate failure!!!
Taking all the above in consideration, it is obvious that we should celebrate our failure for the lessons it teaches us.
That is why I find initiatives such as the FuckUp Nights amazing. They are not paying me to write this post. I just love the initiative and wish you to experience the power of sharing your biggest mistakes with others. You can start creating a spirit of talking about failure right where you are now, in your home, at your work…etc. Your sharing can make a huge difference for someone.
Happy sharing.
Here I´ve got musical inspiration to help you embrace failure and get up on your feet again.
I love especially this excerpt from the song: „We all make mistakes, You might fall on your face, But you gotta get up! We all make mistakes, You might fall on your face, Don’t ever give up!“
NOW IT IS YOUR TURN: What was your latest big failure? What did you learn from it? I can´t wait to hear from you in the comments!!!
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