Tell someone you failed
and what is their response?
“That’s awful!”
“How terrible!”
“I’m so sorry for you!”
“What did YOU do?”
Notice how the responses
are loaded with emotion.
And that’s why many people
do whatever they can
to avoid failure.
As Seth Godin states
“Early in our careers,
we’re encouraged to avoid failure,
and one way we do that is
by building up a set of emotions
around failure,
emotions we try to avoid,
and emotions that
we associate with
the effort of people who fail.”
Many times the best way to avoid
feeling these emotions
is to not try,
to do nothing.
So the next time you hear
someone failed,
be conscious about your response.
Telling that someone
you’re sorry she failed
is the equivalent of telling her
you’re sorry she tried.