I read an article today about failure making you a better manager. I’ve heard this a hundred times – it’s a very popular idea. But after having given it considerable thought, I’ve decided I just don’t agree. You can achieve personal success as a manager, or anything else, without ever having failed. What is this misconception and while is it so prevalent?
The usual reasons given for ‘failure being a good thing’ are:
-You can’t learn without failing: You can’t learn to walk without falling down. You can’t walk smoothly along the path to personal success without running into unexpected hurdles. But what if you just stood up and walked? What if you anticipated all the potential hurdles and, consequently, didn’t run into them – are you doomed? Will you never achieve personal success?
-It teaches you humility: Princeton’s online dictionary defines humility as a “lack of false pride.” What if you don’t have any false pride in the first place?
-It inspires you to succeed: “THIS TIME, I’m going to make it!” Isn’t it possible to have that kind of determination without failing?
-It makes you emotionally accessible: People, the common man, can identify with you. They’re not perfect, and neither are you. That makes you buddies. But is that really the stuff of which relationships are made?
-Failure is inevitable; therefore, once you’ve done it and saw that it won’t kill you, you’re willing to take the risks necessary to achieve personal success. But you may have already been willing to take risks.
So, what is this ‘failure is a good thing’ really all about? I would bet it has something to do with pep talks. Making people feel that past failure doesn’t mean future failure. Making them feel that there is still hope. And, indeed, there is. Always.
People fail all the time. Are they better for it? Did having failed enable them to achieve personal success at a future date? Only if they analyzed why they failed and, having discovered the right reasons, adjusted how they did things in the future to avoid the same pitfalls.
In fact, successful entrepreneurs often study the failures of others so they know what not to do. It’s that type of analysis, of both successes and failures – that makes you a better manager, not the fact that you failed. It is a basic entrepreneurial skill, and you don’t ever have to have failed to be able to do it.
That said, the real and very simple truth about failure is this: No matter how many times you falter, you never really fail until you stop trying.
We’re hearing a lot in the news lately about executive pay. Specifically, about executives who make more money in a year than most people will make in their lifetime – even those considered well paid – while making blunders so severe that millions of employees lose their job, their pension, their savings, their home, and their hope. I don’t know about you, but that’s certainly not what I had in mind when I set my sights on 
Wow. Not a very literate comment, I admit, but I still think the new 
People are driven by different things. And no I don’t mean cars. Their goals are different and their ways of achieving them will always be contingent on their life experience and personal drive.
