“Energy that’s being poured into trying to duplicate past successes can’t be applied to the search for new ones.” – Richard Farson & Ralph Keyes, Whoever Makes the Most Mistakes Wins
Over my holiday vacation I read Whoever Makes the Most Mistakes Wins. (Anyone who’s been following me on Twitter can tell you I’m on a “mistakes” kick lately, up to #19, while having two #10s – another mistake!) So maybe it isn’t a coincidence that I came across this Honda video a few days ago, appropriately titled “Failure: the Secret to Success.”
Mistakes can be crushing. They’re seen as setbacks, failures, and just plain wrong decisions. But now I realize it’s okay to be disappointed, as long as that disappointment drives us to do better. The next time might not be successful, either. Or even the time after that. Challenging, learning, trying something different and new and exciting… this is the path of most resistance. This is the path that is destined for mistakes and failures and opportunities to say, “Enough! That’s enough. I’m done.”
But failures can also inspire. As the United States (and the world) awaits Inauguration Day on January 20th, there was a man who had a setback – a failure! – in the New Hampshire Democratic primary. And from that failure he gave one of the most inspiring concession speeches I have ever seen. And this concession speech inspired a video called Yes We Can. And this in turn inspired others to create, to support, and to become active in politics and a movement and in changing the world. And so on, and so on, and today we enter the eve of the Presidential Inauguration of the man who failed in New Hampshire over a year ago.
It is with great honor that Substance celebrates our Year Two Anniversary on Martin Luther King Day, and a day before Barack Obama is inaugurated as President of the United States. Dr. King experienced challenges his entire life; the civil rights movement is about people not giving up in the face of adversity. This adversity continues today. But Dr. King never said, “I’m done.” He, like Obama, was inspired by this failure.
Here’s to two years in business. And here’s to the mistakes, the failures, the inspiration, and yes, the successes, that have helped us arrive at today and will drive us to always do better.
Have a comment?