Embracing Failure: Taking risks and learning from mistakes

Today at lunch, I’m leading a discussion on Embracing Failure: Taking risks and learning from mistakes for the Rensselaer County Regional Chamber of Commerce Wonder Women Mentoring Luncheon. I thought I’d share a little bit about of that talk with you today, too. I don’t want you to feel left out. 😘 When they gave me the topic they’d like me to talk about, my first reaction was… what will I even talk about? It’s not because I haven’t failed at things in life… far from it. It’s more that I don’t believe I view failure like most people do. Most people see failure when they see little balances in their bank accounts, or from not landing that big sale they had hoped to, or because they watched the company they dreamed about crumble before them. I get that thinking. I really do. I most often view failure from the perspective of life as a big picture. Follow my thinking for a minute. In the end of my life, will I have done my very best to use the talents God has given me? Did I teach my children to love, work hard, be kind, show grace to those who view things differently than we do? Am I being a friend/spouse who brings joy and happiness into a room, shows up when it’s important, sees the pain in their eyes and asks about it instead of ignoring it? I know that’s not what they had in mind when they asked me to speak so I don’t think I’ll bring this up, but I do want to encourage all of you… try to keep the end in mind because it’s helpful in adding healthy perspective for today.

Let’s swing back into the business side of things though; what do we do with failure?? How do we handle a job where they don’t choose our company? How do we handle trying to make a new product and no one buys it? How do we accept when things just aren’t working with a staff member who we thought would be the next best manager? I like to explain small business like this. Small business is like walking on a road filled with adventures, life, and unexpected turns…. then you hit a wall. When you hit that wall, you can decide to stop walking that road, turn around, or jump over that wall. After you jump over the wall (you jump because you’re an entrepreneur and you love a challenge), you keep walking and enjoying the adventure. Then you walk into another wall, but this time it’s too tall to jump over. So you have to decide if you’re going to turn around or build something to get yourself over that next wall. So you learn new skills, build a ladder, create a community to help you… and so on and so on and so on. It doesn’t really ever stop. It just become one new challenge after another. In time you learn that a challenge or failure is ok, you grow stronger, and you look back and are thankful for what all of those walls have taught you. You see how much stronger you are, how much you’ve learned, how many wonderful people you’ve met along the way. So in the end, I don’t look at walls like failures; I view them as opportunities for growth. I learn so much every day. Whether it’s from losing money because I thought something would be a good investment and it wasn’t, or losing time because I didn’t plan adequately, or losing sales because I didn’t learn how to interact with all different personality types quickly enough. It’s not failure; it’s really isn’t. It’s an opportunity for doing better with more wisdom next time. That actually makes you more valuable because you’ve learned what doesn’t work. 

Michael Jordan said it so well, “I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”

Listen to me. Every. Single. Time. that voice whispers in your ear that you’re a failure, I want you to align your perspective with truth. The truth is EVERY SINGLE person makes mistakes and fails. Many times, it’s not even their fault. You are the person who will take that “failure” and flip it into an opportunity to try something new, or try it again, or never do it again – if it is a bad move. “Failure should be our teacher, not our undertaker. Failure is delay, not defeat. It is a temporary detour, not a dead end. Failure is something we can avoid only by saying nothing, doing nothing, and being nothing.” – Denis Waitley

If you were at the event, here’s the link to the video about how to handle stress that I told you about: How to Make Stress Your Friend

Keep on trying and keep your head held high. With no risk comes very little reward. 

I also know you love to see pretty things… so let me share a bedroom set that we just added to our store this week. I love taking vintage pieces and adding barn wood to create one of kind dresser sets!

If you’d like to purchase this set or any of our one of a kind furniture, check out our online FunCycled Furniture Shop.

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Happy FunCycling Friends,
Sarah ;)

If you like what you see, please like FunCycled’s Facebook page to keep up to date on the newest finds, vote on colors and give your input on our creativity. We also offer interior design, kitchen cabinet painting, and custom built tables, barn doors, and furniture. We can deliver for customers in upstate NY and also help you ship throughout the US. Send us a note with what you would like using our contact page. Or buy something that we’ve already designed from our online shop.