by Chas Bonner
Most of us think about failure, especially dismal failure as a minus. However, at times it can be a plus. For instance, an article of faith in the Silicon Valley venture capital community is that most venture funds want to back an entrepreneur who has experienced failure. He learns more, learns what to avoid, and learns how to adapt. Usually failure results in punishment for the action; it should punish the behavior if we don’t learn from it.
The positive behaviors that should be an outgrowth of failure are skepticism, deep analysis, testing the gut, checking with others, and using all analytical skills. While youth may have quick learning ability, age has experience and wisdom, much learned from past failure. Experience enables the gut to take over from the head, but the gut has been influenced by past and current analysis.
One of the oft-mentioned characteristics of successful farmers is that they have developed a great “feel.” They can act quickly and resolutely, often without apparent thought, but obviously developed after a lot of failure and a lot of learning. What is inexcusable is repeated failure. Or has often been quoted, “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing in the same manner, but expecting a different result.”
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