Failure is an option

I believe people subscribe to two schools, at least where failure is concerned. They either believe failure is unacceptable, or they believe that failure is not only acceptable, it is valuable.

I once heard someone say “if we got it right the first time, it would be called search, not research.” Failed experiments serve a mightily important purpose. They teach us what didn’t work. While this seems simple, in the moment, when I’ve pondered over a problem, my first thought when I’m not successful is not always “great, I’ve learned for this!”. It’s normally, damn, that didn’t work..that sucks.

Accepting and learning from failure is a skill. It is something that we must teach our children and we must practice.

It’s easy, but unrealistic, to say “I’ll never fail”. As much as I wish success for all of the students who cross my path, I also hope that they meet failure early and learn that it can be a good thing. There is little more academically devastating than being the kid who has always has straight As and getting your first B, or worse, a D. The earlier we learn how to deal with these events, the sooner we also figure out how to learn from our missteps.

One point of clarification. All failure doesn’t have the same consequences. Failing a quiz has lower stakes than failing the whole course. And there are failures that can have catastrophic consequences. That isn’t really my point here.

If you take one thing from this musing, let it be that failure is a step on the path to success. Being unsuccessful in achieving a goal doesn’t make you a failure. You must examining what happened and try again.