Just sharing a musing of mine:

In life, making mistakes is part and parcel of the learning process, as we traverse the Highway of Life.

We can more or less say this is going through the University of Hard Knocks.

The most important thing for each and every one of us, is evaluating - and learning from the mistakes made, and ensuring that we don't make the same mistake on the forward trajectory.

The fear of making mistakes (as part of my intellectual concoction The Triunity of Fear, with the remaining two being Fear of the Unknown and Fear of Ridicule or Looking Stupid Among Our Peers) is quite natural.

As Dr Maltz had asserted, face it and deal with it.

As another wise one once said, FEAR is spelt as Face Everything And Rise!

In doing so, as I have had discovered from my own fair share of making mistakes, I have had indeed eventually gained the advantage of outgrowing and outperforming my own perceptions of fear.

As a parting shot, I like to share the life philosophy of Henry Ford:

1. Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.

2. The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing.

3. What is life, but attempting to triumph after failure, anyway?

Enjoy!

WHAT SCIENTIFIC CONCEPT WOULD IMPROVE EVERYBODY'S COGNITIVE TOOLKIT?

"We must learn to love uncertainty & failure," say leading thinkers. Here's the link to their expert comments.

HOW TO FAIL: 25 SECRETS LEARNED THROUGH FAILURE

Wanna cut short your learning curve through the "corridor"?

Here are some interesting insights from someone who had gone through the baptism of fire.

How To Fail: 25 Secrets Learned through Failure

View more presentations from Taylor Davidson.

A WISE QUOTE FOR MONDAY MORNING

"... On the most aggregate level, failure is, in a sense, a consequence of success: no business models live forever... there's always a gale of creative destruction... disruption is the order of the day...

... In a sense, every success is built upon an assemblage of failures. The challenge would be to detect them...

... Map out a failure strategy..."


~ ragtag snippets from the writings of Dr Bengt-Avne Vedin, Professor Emeritus in Innovation Management, Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, in Sweden;

[Source: Innovation Management;]

THE FRINGE BENEFITS OF FAILURE, & THE IMPORTANCE OF IMAGINATION

What follows is actually my extract of the Commencement Speech by J K Rowling, author of the best-selling Harry Potter book series, at the Annual Meeting of the Harvard Alumni Association in June last year.

It's entitled 'The Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the Importance of Imagination'.

The entire speech can be viewed at this link.

In a nut shell, her speech was an inspiring look into her own personal life as well as her professional success.

In her address, she has stressed the importance of imagination, not just because imagination was the vital key to her own success as an author, but because it is what enables us to create and make progress in life.

"... So why do I talk about the benefits of failure?

Simply because failure meant a stripping away of the inessential. I stopped pretending to myself that I was anything other than what I was, and began to direct all my energy into finishing the only work that mattered to me.

Had I really succeeded at anything else, I might never have found the determination to succeed in the one arena I believed I truly belonged. I was set free, because my greatest fear had been realised, and I was still alive, and...

... You might never fail on the scale I did, but some failure in life is inevitable. It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all – in which case, you fail by default...

... Failure gave me an inner security that I had never attained by passing examinations.

Failure taught me things about myself that I could have learned no other way...

... The knowledge that you have emerged wiser and stronger from setbacks means that you are, ever after, secure in your ability to survive. You will never truly know yourself, or the strength of your relationships, until both have been tested by adversity. Such knowledge is a true gift, for all that it is painfully won, and...

... I have learned to value imagination in a much broader sense.

Imagination is not only the uniquely human capacity to envision that which is not, and therefore the fount of all invention and innovation. In its arguably most transformative and revelatory capacity, it is the power that enables us to empathise with humans whose experiences we have never shared...

... Unlike any other creature on this planet, humans can learn and understand, without having experienced. They can think themselves into other people’s places..."

GO AHEAD & FAIL! EMBRACE FAILURE! SEEK IT OUT! LEARN TO LOVE IT!

The foregoing exuberant exhortation in the form of my blogpost title truly reflects my personal sentiment about what this new book, entitled 'Celebrating Failure: The Power of Taking Risks, Making Mistakes & Thinking Big' by business coach Ralph Heath is all about.

Writing with warmth, sincerity & candour, the author has very skillfilly drawn from his own 31-year professional history of running Ovation Marketing, an award-winning advertising agency business, as well as "hundreds, or perhaps thousands, of personal failures to achieve outstanding or spectacular learning experiences", often interjecting pragmatic lessons from interacting with his own direct family members.

There are altogether 30 great chapters, totaling just under 200 pages, & with the 'Introduction: Failure Teaches You to Succeed', that makes 31, each artfully prefaced with a short but meaningful chapter title, e.g. #1: 'Starting Fires'; #30: 'Change is My Drug of Choice'.

What I like most about reading the book is that each chapter has an inspiring quote & a brisk preamble, which presents 'The Failure Factor', as well as a concise summary, which highlights the actionable insights from the author. Hence, reading is a breeze, & best of all, takeaways are right at your fingertips.

That's to say, in really no uncertain terms, the entire book has been thoughtfully crafted by the author, with all the cumulative chapter insights actually forming the jewels of the book.

For me, among many others, my favourite chapter is #27: 'Why Wait?'.

According to the author, the word 'Wait' is one of the ugliest words in the English Language. Surprisingly to me, he has even added that it is often used in advertising agencies as a call for inaction.

Nonetheless, the swift counterpoint from the author is "to take action, to move forward with your thoughts & ideas to accomplish something, instead of waiting for something - or nothing - to happen."

At the end of the reading endeavour, one can quickly use the book as a how-to manual on developing a culture of intelligent risk taking in any setting, organisational, professional or personal.

The author's account of failures, setbacks & triumphs is reassuring, joyful & motivating. His writing is succinct, concise & easy-going.

I highly recommend this book for any professional, especially if you are in sales & marketing.

As a matter of fact, people from every walk of life can learn something useful from Ralph Heath's 'Celebrating Failure'.