In some cities, spring arrives by way of budding flowers. Here in Boston, it’s the arrival of runners from across the world. April 18 is Marathon Monday. It’s also
Patriot’s Day which means offices are closed. It’s also spring break for many schools. This means that every runner is guaranteed 26.2 miles (and more!) of cheerleaders.
In 2010, the Boston Marathon had 26,790 entrants and 22,721 finishers. In 2011, registration closed in a record 8 hours, 3 minutes. And those were people who ran fast enough to qualify for Boston (BQ)! For every person who crosses the finish line, there will be hundreds who don’t. (If you’re interested in reading more about the marathon, The Boston Globe has an entire section dedicated to it:
http://www.boston.com/sports/marathon/)
What do you think: does not crossing the finish line a matter of failure? Not running a personal best? Not hitting ‘submit’ fast enough? Not getting that qualifying time? Injury, weather, unforeseen circumstances: does the reason the goal wasn’t reached matter? How about at which step it occurred: training, registering, racing?
Everyone’s heard the speech about how failure makes us stronger. But how many of us really, truly, actually believe it? It’s probably people who, at one point or another, didn’t cross the finish line. (Me! How about you?) For some reason, failure’s this month's hot topic.
When "Failure is not an option" neither is innovation. - @BreneBrown
Here are some recent articles worth reading:
- The Failure Issue, Harvard Business Review, April 2011 (splurge for a copy, check it out from your library, borrow it from a friend.)
- 9 Business Icons Who Faced Utter Failure And Came Back To Kick Ass, Entrepreneur Kelly K. Spors
- Fail often, fail well: Companies have a great deal to learn from failure—provided they manage it successfully. The Economist, Schumpeter, Apr 14th 2011
- Anatomy of a Business Failure, BNET.com, Mary Goodman and Rich Russakoff, April 14, 2011
Obviously, no one sets out to fail. Hey, we’re addicted to winning!
Knowing when you’ve missed the mark is relatively easy. The data (clock, grade, bank account, termination notice) tell you. Processing what went wrong is the tough part. It’s much easier to fuggedaboutit and move on. But it’s the deconstruction and evaluation that really will make you, your company, your goals stronger. Trust me – I’ve learned this both the hard and easy ways. You tried and didn't succeed. Do you understand what went wrong? What did you learn from it? What are your next steps? How will you move ahead?
One of the great things about the rise in social networking is how easy it can make starting the evaluation process. There are countless resources available with just a connection, tweet or post. (SocialGrow makes it even easier to build those networks!) The possibilities and examples are endless – and almost clichéd. A programmer found a job on LinkedIn. A novice athlete joined a training group to prepare for her first triathlon. An entrepreneur found investors. And when things didn’t go right? They had the resources and contacts to develop a new plan of attack. At the end of the day, it’s not whether you succeed or fail, it’s how you proceed.
I hope your training goes well, that you get that qualifying time and finish with a personal record in whatever arena it may be. And hey – if it doesn’t go as you’d planned? Take a minute. Understand, learn, and recover. Now, what’s next?
