Ten Thousand Failures
By Michael Angier
Thomas Edison once mentioned to reporters that he had tried over 10,000
materials as filaments for his new invention, the electric light bulb. One
reporter asked how the young inventor maintained his persistence in the
face of so much failure. "Failure?" he responded. "I didn't
fail. What I did was successfully eliminate 10,000 elements which were
unacceptable for my needs." What most people would call failure,
Edison saw as the process of invention.
The ability to accept so-called failure simply as information and then
make corrections without self-invalidation is rare. However, it is a
critical key to success. Accepting defeat or criticism is never easy, but
it is those people who take feedback and make corrections who create
lasting success.
Everyone fails. Everyone makes mistakes and has painful experiences.
Most people just complain about them, justify them or blame someone else.
The self-actualised person learns from them, adjusts, and goes on. No
self-condemnation … no pity parties … no blame … just awareness and
correction. It's not what happens to us but rather what we do with what
happens to us that makes the difference.
How do we make corrections without self-invalidation? Here's an
example: If we were to fly to a distant city, our flight would be off
course more than 90 percent of the time. Constant feedback and correction
would be required to reach our intended destination. As we drift off
course, the guidance system reports to the autopilot, and the autopilot
makes the necessary adjustments. As our altitude drops or increases
slightly, the same thing occurs. This feedback and correction cycle
continues over and over again hundreds of thousands of times throughout
the course of our flight.
Can you imagine such an exchange of information between two people?
After about the hundredth time, the pilot would probably lose it with the
navigator. "Stop it! Just shut up and leave me alone. I'm doing my
job!"
But the autopilot never gets angry at the guidance system for its
constant correction and the guidance system never makes the autopilot
wrong for being off course. It is the ultimate in correction without
invalidation. We can all learn from this analogy. Being off course doesn't
mean we are wrong or bad. It is just information that we can use to make a
correction.
Many of us use computers. When we don't get the results we want, we
often blame the computer. But usually the problem is not in the hardware;
it's in the programs or in the instructions we give it. The computer can
be flawless, but if the instructions are faulty, the intended outcome will
be undesirable. Although we may get frustrated with computers, and with
ourselves for errors, it's counterproductive to blame the system or
ourselves.
Like computers, we humans often run programs (belief systems and
strategies), which result in failure. We frequently make ourselves wrong
for being less than perfect. We berate ourselves for our mistakes or don't
admit our mistakes because that would mean we're bad. We spend huge
quantities of emotional energy in justifying or feeling guilty rather than
looking for different approaches that will bring success. To overcome
adversity, we must redirect this energy in better ways.
Self-invalidation is a debilitating disease. It keeps us from
accomplishing much that we would attempt if we weren't so afraid of
failing-of being wrong. More is lost from not doing something than from
trying and failing. The price of doing nothing is high. The money you
don't make is more than the money you may lose.
As Robert Schuller asks, "What great thing would you attempt if
you knew you couldn't fail?" It's worth serious contemplation
because, in fact, there is no failure.
Like Edison, we need to view our errors as part of the process of
success. If we learn to embrace them and use them, they can become our
tools instead of our enemies.
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