Why success always starts with failure

This is the first of a two-part article on how to manage a fear of failure.

Life is short, so it’s important to do what you love and to do it with passion. This requires a certain willingness to let go of the concept of failure. In fact, there really is no such thing as failure – there are only results and feedback.

The story of Abraham Lincoln illustrates there is no such thing as failure, only feedback. It has become an anecdotal tale repeated by performance consultants around the world.

Abraham Lincoln, America’s 37th president, failed in business at the age of 31. He was defeated in the state legislature at 32, failed again in business at 33, lost his sweetheart who died when he was 35, had a nervous breakdown at 36 and lost another election at 38.

At 43, 46 and 48 respectively, Lincoln lost congressional races. At 55, he lost a Senate race. At 56, he failed to become vice president of the USA and, at 58, he lost another Senate race.

Lincoln learned from every experience and never saw his losses as failures. He learnt how to change his approach where necessary and saw his losses as feedback and results. They weren’t necessarily the results he wanted, so he adjusted and fine-tuned his approach to every election.

At the age of 60, Lincoln became president of the United States.

Allowing risks and mistakes

Letting go of the fear of mistakes takes courage. This is primarily because we all fear rejection. But there are no right answers in many situations and letting go of the fear of mistakes is the best way to learn.

Think about how you’ve learned all of your most valuable lessons. This is exactly how I learnt to value the clarity of setting objectives before making first contact with potential clients or speaking on any topic.

It’s also about belief – all human behaviour is organised around belief. Whenever someone says something’s important or not important to do, it’s because they have a belief about it.

If you have a belief that there is no such thing as failure, it will free you to take risks, to be imaginative, innovative and creative. You can’t possibly fail. You’ll only learn from your results, your achievements and feedback from others about what works, what doesn’t work and what needs work.

You’ll always succeed in producing a result. If it’s not the result you want, then learn from your mistakes and change your approach.

In my next article, I will discuss how failure forms a part of high performance psychology and can be used in setting goals.