Failure Is Not Fatal
“Success is not final; failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts”
- Winston Churchill
Before my career changing run in with a chicken house fan, my overall coaching record, in the first eleven years of my coaching career, was 33 Wins – 77 Loses and 1 Tie. I was averaging 3 wins a season. Not a great resume statistic.
The one thing that was constant in my life was my belief in myself and my ability to become a winning coach. You may have noticed that I didn’t say a “successful coach”. I knew I was doing some good stuff. I knew I had learned a lot in my first 11 years of my career. I just needed the right place to put it all together.
When it all came together my wins skyrocketed (251 wins) to a career average of 11 wins a season. Like Churchill says, “Failure is not fatal.” The only thing that is fatal is if we stop trying. I could have looked at my three wins a season and said, “I suck”, and left coaching and taken a job I wasn’t passionate about. At that time, I would have failed myself because I would have given up on my passion. When we give up on ourselves than we truly have failed.
Vinh Giang, a highly respected speaking coach, said that, “Failure is the entry fee to becoming great.” Failure is a combination of a several factors. It might be a lack of preparation. It might be a lack of knowledge in that area. It might be a lack of skill. It might be a dream that is out of our reach.
In my case I ticked all of those boxes.
I wasn’t “ready” to be successful. I was in the wrong part of the coaching game. I wanted to be the head football coach, but I didn’t possess the skills needed to be a winning head coach.
I didn’t have the knowledge that was a prerequisite to being a head football coach.
I could coach but I couldn’t oversee all the aspects of building a team.
And I didn’t have the mental acuity to stack my play calling during a game. A great play caller already has a series of plays in his head, (down and distance, field location, weaknesses of the opponent) ready to call as soon as he sees the outcome of the previous play. I would watch the play and then go to my play call sheet and then figure out what play, and what personnel needed to be on the field. And then communicate it to my coaches and to the players, all in a short time period. Play calling is truly an art.
Because I lacked these qualities, I knew I would be a better assistant. But I had the skill to be a leader. When I finally looked at my true passion, training athletes to be their best, the decision to become a strength coach was simple. I had all the qualities to be a head strength coach.
What About You?
This was my story. What about your story. Where are you on your journey. Are you moving forward? Are you stuck? Have you given up? Whatever the case lets figure out WHY this is happening.
Yes, even if you are moving forward, we need to look at WHY are you being successful. Is it a lucky patch? Do you have a dream team of co-workers that are partially responsible for your success?
If things are working well make note of the reason. When you are successful, people will come after your assistants so they can become successful also.
Make note of all the things that are around you that are helping your company be successful. When people leave, make sure you fill their spot with a person that is as good if not better. If your product is successful, make sure you have the next great product ready to go.
If you think that you are the only reason your company is successful, make sure you are there if the bottom falls out. Don’t be one of those people who are the first one there for the parade but are the first to point fingers when the company is in trouble.
If you are stuck, WHY are you stuck? Is it a growing phase where you just don’t feel like you’re moving forward? Maybe you are on the wrong path in the right profession. I did this in coaching. I was in the right profession, just the wrong place. Instead of the playing field I needed to be on the training field and the weight room. Here is something that you may not know; my Super Bowl ring is the same ring that the head coach received. He followed his passion, I followed mine, it just so happened to end at the same spot.
Look for a mentor to help you stay on your path. Ask your true friends, your quarters, why they don’t think you are able to move forward. Maybe you are in the wrong company. Maybe you need to bite the bullet and move to a different company, even if it is a slightly lower position. In horse racing a jockey will maneuver their horse, sometimes giving up a spot, to get in the right space to make a run at the end.
What about those who have given up? I ask the same question: WHY? Maybe it was the wrong profession for you. That’s recognizing that you were on the wrong path. A fellow coaching friend of mine was a really good coach. But his passion wasn’t there for coaching. He wanted to be a mortician his whole life. Coaching seemed to make everyone happy, except him. Now he runs a string of mortuaries. There was no doubt he was going to be the best at whatever he did. His was helping people move on to the next step of their life journey.
Maybe you have had several failed attempts at your career. Look at what went wrong. Can you fix these problems? It may have been location. It may have been the people who you hired. It may have been a relationship with someone in the building. If this truly is your passion, and not just a pretty job, then stay connected and go back after your goals and dreams.
Failure Purifies
In his book, Failure Rules! Andrew Thorp King tells us that failure purifies and focuses us better than success ever can. Success can fool us into thinking that we know everything. Failure allows us to focus better because we know what doesn’t work, it purifies our motives and our work.
Thomas Edison when asked about the 10,000 failed attempts to make a light bulb, he said, “I didn’t fail, I found 9,999 ways how not to make a light bulb.” Each time he made a light bulb that didn’t work, he got closer to making one that did work. Each “failure” purified his thought process. They no longer needed to try that method, because it was proven not to work. This allowed them to focus on only the ways to make the light bulb viable.
Had Edison got lucky and got it right on the first or second try he would not have learned the lessons that came with the failures. These lessons would allow Edison and his Melo Park team to continue to make breakthroughs in all sorts of items that we take for granted today.
Understand Your Gifts
When you are moving through your professional, or personal life, remember your gifts, or your crayons, the things that you do better than anyone else. Stay true to what those are and you will continue to “fail forward” as you go through your life.
I don’t know of anyone who was successful for a long period of time that didn’t have more than a few setbacks. But if you are doing your passion, if you are pursing whatever it is that makes you feel good about yourself, then a setback here or there is just a missed swing at the ball.
Remember the best hitters in all of baseball history failed 60% - 70% of the time. Michael Jordan had a career field-goal percentage of 49.7% during his career. He “failed” more than half the time. Tiger Woods only had three hole-in-ones in competitions during his illustrious career. Jack Nicklaus had no hole-in-ones during his playing career. (My mom had four during her lifetime.) How many par threes did they play that they didn’t put the ball in the hole, and they are seen as some of the greatest, golfers of all time.
Missing a shot was not seen as a failed attempt in their careers. Just like not getting every deal is not an indictment of your career. A marriage that doesn’t work out doesn’t mean you are a bad person. Eventually the right one will come into your life and you’ll know you did it right.
Keep swinging, keep shooting, keep working and you will push through your setbacks, as long as you don’t take your setbacks as fatal. Understand WHY they are happening. And make the corrections to get yourself back on track.
Surviving Failure
Here are three ways to “Survive Failure”:
1). Understand Your Passion: If you aren’t following our passion, you will never take the steps to correct your errors, you will just go through the motions. Much like my coaching friend who became a mortician, he knew he was not passionate about coaching. When it is your passion, you will allow for the occasional setback and see it as a wake-up call, which will allow you to get yourself back on track
2) Win or Learn: Much like Thomas Edison did after failing to make a light bulb on the first effort; learn and move on. When you continue your forward movement, you will find success just around the next corner.
3) Re-Set Your Course: If you are totally out of your element and you see each failure as a nail in your coffin then it may be time, after you have pulled every string to succeed, to re-set your path. I did this when I moved from football coaching to strength coaching and then again when I became a motivational speaker. It’s not easy, but it will stoke the fire that may have gone dark in your soul. When you are on the right path, you will know it.
Follow these ideas and you will see that failure is only temporary and your optimal life is closer than you think!
Have an amazing day!
