succeed

Failure Stories vs Success Stories. Which is More Useful?

Most of what we try, fails. And these failures aren't visible.

Successes, on the hand, are highly visible. In the age of social media, even more so.

And society demands that the image that we portray is that of success.

When you apply for a position, you are rarely asked about your failures. If they do ask, you are taught, even somewhat expected, to answer in a way that flips the answer into one about success.

When you introduce yourself, you don't tell people about the number of times you've started unsuccessful businesses or the number of unsuccessful job applications you've made.

When you screen a potential business partner, you don't ask about their prior failed ventures either. It seems almost rude to do so.

And yet, so many of these stories of failures contain such valuable lessons. And there are so many more of them.

Success stories can be inspirational, of course. But the real learning is in the stories of failures.

We really need to create spaces that are safe to tell these stories, so that more people can learn from them.