Lessons from Failure

“Like any good school, learning from failure isn’t free. The tuition is paid in discomfort or loss and having to start over. Be glad to pay the cost. There will be no better teacher your career, for your book, for your new venture.” - Ryan Holiday, The Obstacle is the Way I've been reflecting on this at length after I read it recently. It’s so easy to have a self-perception as courageous or open to failure, but the truth is we aren’t programmed to fail. From our youngest years, we’re told failure is bad. Something we actively must avoid. Something that taints our image, makes our parents look bad or signals to the world that we’re dumb. One thing I've learned from a recent failure was how NOT to do cold outreach. People hate being sold to. There are other ways to connect. It's better to actually connect as human beings than to sell right away, especially when you have no credibility in the relationship. What have you learned from a failure?