The True Cost of Failure?

What will happen when you fall on your butt on the ice in front of everyone in attendance?

You’ll pick yourself up and start skating again.

If that latest code fix breaks the build and blocks everyone else from check-ins?

You’ll unwind your check-out, figure out what you did wrong and later build something that won’t block everyone when this happens to someone else?

What will you do if that proposal that you spent all of last week’s days and nights putting effort into does not win the bid?

Figure out what you did wrong, reach out to the client and try again.

What if while during your demo, your application crashes in front of all the senior execs in attendance?

You might crack a joke about the Demo Gods and then restart while keeping your cool and marking that as “Escaped Feature” to be culled.

What if while presenting on a topic where you are the “Expert” someone points out an error in your presentation where you are wrong?

You’ll thank them for pointing it out, look at where you made your mistake, and update your information, admitting you made a mistake.

And what if that drawing that you have tried for the umpteenth time still looks like a Picasso met Pollock?

Then you’ll try it for the umpteenth + 1 time to get it to where you are happy with it.

And what if you feel that no matter how hard you keep trying to overcome all of these failures on a monthly, weekly, daily, hourly basis you are just getting nowhere and the easiest path is to just throw in the towel and say enough?

Then you’ll pick up that towel, wipe off your brow and get back in the game because the True Cost of Failure is leaving the towel on the floor, letting it collect dust, walking around it each time you enter the room and closing your eyes so you don’t see it ever again.  In all those actions, you’re expending more energy just to avoid it, when if you just dove right in, you’d know what it’s going to take to get there.  Imagine if all that energy was expended elsewhere?  It could be worse then you thought it might be better, who knows?  Does it matter?  Will it make a difference in the end?

Now excuse me while I go do some EPIC failing.