1. First I ask, “Can failure be an important learning experience?” Everyone usually answers, “yes.”
2. Then I ask, “Don’t we often learn more from failure than we do from success?” People again answer, “Usually, yes.”
3. I go on to ask, “Aren’t we as leaders and followers ought to be learning and growing at all times throughout our life?” Once more, the answer that comes back is “Yes!”
4. Then I conclude by asking, “Then shouldn’t we be failing as often as possible?”
At that point, the room usually falls silent.
That reasoning is why I believe it’s important not just to tolerate failure, but to celebrate it, which we will do all next week. I have my list of my personal failures to study, and I want to milk them for all they are worth to prepare for my future successes.