We have written about the benefits of not being afraid to fail – taking risks, being bold, and not limiting yourself. And when you do fail, being able to make the most of a failure through learning, growing, and pushing yourself further. In a recent Inc. magazine blog post, Lewis Schiff, author of the soon-to-be-released book, Business Brilliant: Surprising Lessons from The Greatest Self-Made Business Icons, shares what he learned in his research for the book about how to deal with failure and make it a stepping stone to success. Demonstrating true Thoughtful Leadership™ qualities, Schiff’s five actions reinforce the importance of self-reflection, connection, and meaningful action:

  1. Forgive yourself – we are really good at beating ourselves up and telling ourselves how inept we are. But being able to forgive yourself opens a path forward.
  2. Talk it over – Connect with like-minded people who can talk honestly with you about the failure and share thoughts and experiences to help you through.
  3. Be honest about what really went wrong – Peel back the onion and take a fresh and candid look at what happened – from beginning to end. What can you learn from the experience? What do you need to do differently?
  4. Take responsibility – Own up to your role in the failure. Placing blame and pointing fingers won’t help you to understand what you need to do to learn from this and grow stronger.
  5. Try, try, try again – While Yoda said, “there is no try, only do,” trying again gives you the gift of learning from your mistakes, committing to different or better behaviors, and potentially seeing the results you hoped for.

How have you capitalized on a failure and used it to help you achieve success?
Please leave a comment to share.

If you enjoyed this post, you can read more like it in our book, The Power of Thoughtful Leadership: 101 Minutes To Being the Leader You Want To Be, available on Amazon.


For help in seeing the opportunities in failure, contact Robyn at rmcleod@chatsworthconsulting.com.

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