The word failure can set up a simplistic way of thinking that allows for only the two possibilities of failure or success. The word failure has come to elicit a black and white scenario in which all subtlety is lost. We tend to lose our ability to see the truth when we regard ourselves, or something we have done, as a failure.Failure has come to represent the worst possible outcome. It more often is something that did not turn out the way that we wanted. The negativity surrounding the concept of failure is not something that is lost on Michael Jordan, Walt Disney, Thomas Edison or Babe Ruth. These men were never reduced by frequent occurrences of that which we label failure. Their endeavors came up short frequently. Jordan lost 26 games by missing the game winning shot. Disney was a high school drop out who filed for bankruptcy in 1921. Edison tried to revolutionize the iron ore business. He spent a decade and several million dollars in an eterprise that would fall on it's face. His process, however, became the inspiration for Henry Ford's Model T. Babe Ruth, the king of baseball, struck out more than anyone else in his era. The world is a better place because they did not give up. They never quit trying. They never considered themselves as failures in life.
It is time that we reframe the word and the concept of failure in the context of the larger picture. It might be an idea to drop the use of the word completely. What can we learn from situations that do not work out the way that we wanted? What can we do differently when we come up short? Today I will remember that failure is not falling down, it is staying down.
