The Power of Failure

What is Failure?

• A lack of success.
• The omission of expected or required action.
• Achieving a result other than the one desired

Who Fails a Lot?

• Athletes
• Musicians
• A child learning to walk

What Can Failure Be?

• An opportunity to measure performance
• A way to choose what not to do
• First Attempts In Learning Using Real Experience™

Is
Failure
Defeat?

What Makes Failure So Scary?

• We are what we DO
• Social status = Identity
• We measure ourselves externally
• "Impostors syndrome"

How Can Failure Be Positive?

• That which does not kill me... makes me stranger(?)
• Fail fast, Fail FORWARD
• The "Sherlock Holmes" method
• Eliminate "analysis paralysis" - the endless "what if/what about..."

Accept Failure

Expect It

But DON'T Embrace It...

Fail, but NEVER Quit

• Michael Jordan - failed to make high school varsity
• Stephen King - almost quit "Carrie" after only 3 pages
• Blockbuster - could have owned Netflix
• Television - concept originally rejected because... radio
• Remember 2007 - "what does Apple know about phones???"

Abraham Lincoln

• 1832: Ran for state legislature – lost
• 1835: Was engaged to be married, sweetheart died
• 1843: Was not nominated Whig Congressional candidate
• 1854, 1858: Did not win U.S. Senate race
• 1860: Elected president of the United States

Marin Luther King, Jr.

• 1961 desegregation campaign - Albany, Georgia
• 1966 Chicago Freedom Movement
• Failed to convert America to a fully integrated country based on justice and equality

Luz Long - the winning loser

Luz Long

• Won the Silver medal in the 1936 Olympic long jump.
• Rumored to have coached Jesse Owens how to avoid disqualification
• Embraced Owens after his long jump gold medal victory
• Remained friends with Owens until his death in WWII

Jesse Owens

• Invented the myth about Long coaching him during long jump
• Received the last letter Long wrote from the battle front
• Honored Long's wish to tell his son Karl about his father hope for racial solidarity
• Was best man at Karl Long's wedding

Losers Who Won - American Idol

• Jennifer Hudson, 7th place, Season 3 (2004) -  Won Best Supporting Oscar for her first film, Dreamgirls (2006),  won a 2008 Grammy for best R&B album
• Clay Aiken, Runner-up, Season 2 (2003) - outsold winner Ruben Studdard; in 2014, won the Democratic primary for North Carolina congressional seat before losing the general election.
• Adam Lambert, Runner-up, Season 8 (2009) - currently touring with members of Queen
• Katharine McPhee, Runner-up, Season 5 (2006) - Actress:  NBC's Smash and CBS' Scorpion

New Ideas Usually Fail...

• Not because they don't work - the public fails to understand them
• The creators fail to communicate their value and utility
• Their real purpose fails to be initially understood

Surround Yourself

With CHALLENGERS, not CHEERLEADERS