Emma Brincat – 18th October 2011
Turning Failure into Success
On the first day at the school we had a paper plane making exercise. Apparently it was much harder than it looked. The technique was not all in the build of the plane, but in the way you threw it too. It takes a lot of trial and error until you get it right because there is a lot of adjusting that needs to be done for each throw, until you get it right. It doesn’t mean starting from scratch, but working on an existing foundation and perhaps finding different means and perspectives of getting the right balance. Unfortunately, many people forgo the trial because they’re afraid of the error.
Failure breeds success.
Last week we had to present our agency name to Steve Henry. My team was at a slight disadvantage, as we were the smallest group. That wasn’t necessarily the major problem. We all had different ways of working, and ideas weren’t bouncing off each other. This led us to fall out with each other, but we soon realised our mistake, which was that we were over evaluating ideas during the process and discarding ideas without trying to develop them. So, we used a means of trial and error to resolve our problems, and overcame that obstacle.
After our disappointing feedback from our WIP ( Work In Progress meeting) we went into crisis mode, which meant spending our night starting from scratch, but there were only two of us. We challenged the brief, were far more underprepared than any of the groups, and realised we had left out a team member. Our feedback from Steve wasn’t what we’d hoped for, but I don’t regret the decision we made. We decided to present something we were passionate about, had the confidence to go up there after our struggle and felt stronger than ever because we knew we had probably learnt a far greater lesson than many of the teams.
Maybe we failed, but that’s what was the success. Nothing feels better than falling down and actually motivating yourself to get up again. Most of our ideas get rejected, but the adrenaline rush is amazing when one goes through, and I would let myself fall over and over again to get that strength, insight and experience. Error made us embrace our creativity, and was the best way of finding our creative solution.
Many people in the workplace are too scared of this risk-taking element because their jobs are on the line; they have families to feed, which could end up making their work culture far worse. If failure is you’re frightful horror then it may be healthy to rehearse Steve Jobs’ story again, and find some inspiration from that.
I strongly believe that if failure is something you can accept you are more likely to take a relaxed approach to tough situations, and probably get it right in the first place.
