In a rather extensive twitter thread, we’ve been discussing how “failure” serves us. The consensus seems to be: failure is a good thing if we learn from it. So if it’s a good thing, why do we fear it? (Since after all, we can always elect to learn from it.)
- @candees: we’re afraid of others’ perceptions of us when we fail.
- @harrowdrive: we get conditioned to fear failure as kids.
- @starshyne: we equate project failure with failure as a person
- @smsaxon: we think failure will be permanent
- @erebor (Ryan Waldron): we don’t know the cost beforehand, so we fear the cost will be too high.
- @cathystucker: failure is embarassing
When others fail
We’re pretty much not as judgmental as we fear others will be.
Chip Brady added: we fear failure because it brings pain, even when we learn from it. (Of course, we can still ask, why does it bring pain?)
I also think that there’s such a spirit of competitveness in business, that when we fail, even if we know we can learn from it, we don’t want others to see and think we are imperfect. If only all of our failures could be in private…
We fear what we don’t understand; apparently, we don’t understand what “failure” is.
We fear failure because we know ourselves how we have judged the failures of other people, but we don’t realise how quickly failures are forgotten, or how quickly they become part of the mythology of a great success.