Like so many people in the world, the fear of failure has stopped me from trying new things. But, I try not to let it stop me anymore.
The more successful people I talk to, the more I realize that failure is not real. Failure is only failure if you quit. Quitting is the true failure.
Here are a few quotes about failure that make the point.
“The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing.” Henry Ford
“Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor” Truman Capote
“A person who never made a mistake, never tried anything new. Albert Einstein
J.K. Fowling said, “Failure is so important. We speak about success all the time. It is the ability to resist failure or use failure that often leads to greater success. I’ve met people who don’t want to try for fear of failing”
I worked at my last job for 16 years. My first job was cleaning the bakery or SSOP as they called it. At first I thought they said SSOB. After six months I applied for a morning position, then after a year I went back to the bakery as a wrapper.
While I was wrapping in the bakery I told my manager that I wanted to get to a management position within the next year.
He said sarcastically, “Good luck, if you become a manager next year I’ll quit my job.”
I told him I didn’t need more motivation and thanked him nonetheless.
Since I was only working part-time I had the opportunity to pick up hours in other departments, so I went to the “front end” and started packing groceries, working on till and promoting the latest products the company was pushing.
After a year I was a front end supervisor and the bakery manager didn’t quit but he did put in for a transfer to another location. On his way out I asked him if he was leaving because I was getting too close?
Anyhow, during my tenure with the company I went from the bakery to morning stocking, back to the bakery, membership, refunds, cashier, front end supervisor, buggy pusher, food court, meat department etc…
Fellow employees always asked me why I moved around so much and my response was that I liked to change things up and not be bored and that I loved not knowing what I was doing. I love learning new things.
To be honest, it was a great place to work, with great wages and benefits all around. It was a job with a lot of security and the risk of failure was minimal. But it always amazed me how people were so afraid to try different positions. When I asked people why they didn’t try something new it was alway the same answer… “I don’t know how to do that job.”
I would always tell them that they had nothing to worry about, that they would learn the new position the same way they learned what they were doing now. “In six months you’ll wonder what you were afraid of.” I would say.
Anyhow… not all my goals are great leaps, some are just small steps to something else.
I just wanted to remind you that you can do it too. Try something new. Maybe it’s a walk every day, maybe it’s writing your own blog, maybe it’s singing. Whatever it is, there is no real reason to be afraid to try. You can always stop or learn from your failure.
Love, Chip and Honey Toodee