BRX Pro Tip: How to Learn from Failure
Stone Payton : And we are back with Business RadioX Pro Tips. Lee Kantor, Stone Payton here with you. Lee, I know in the last, gosh, 35 years of trying to help people and make money, I’ve had a few failures. And I’d like to think that I’ve learned from them. But what’s the best way? What’s the best strategy, discipline for really learning from failure?
Lee Kantor: Yeah, I think that one of the biggest disservices that the education system and that a lot of the learning when you’re young is that failure is this thing you don’t want to get on yourself, that you should run away from failure. You should – failure is like the worst thing that can possibly happen. And in some cultures, it is terribly the worst thing that could possibly happen. Fortunately, in America, failure, we are pretty accepting of failure.
Lee Kantor: So the first thing I would do when it comes to failing in any kind of way is reframe failing instead of as something that is a setback I would reframe it as it’s a valuable learning opportunity. It’s not a setback in any way. You didn’t achieve what you wanted to achieve, but you did achieve something. At the minimum, you learned how not to do something. So I would definitely reframe failure as a learning or an experiment rather than a setback.
Lee Kantor: When you adopt this kind of growth mindset and take a systematic approach to analyzing lessons learned, you can transform pretty much any failure into a springboard for a future – for future growth and future achievement.
Lee Kantor: So it’s important to analyze what went wrong anytime something goes wrong. So take the time to objectively examine what happened, what were the key factors, what led to this negative outcome. Identify specific mistakes or missteps or gaps in knowledge or skills that occurred that caused this, and then avoid the temptation to making excuses or assigning blame. Just focus in on what you can learn.
Lee Kantor: And then iterate moving forward. Take the insights you’ve gained to try new approaches or adjust your strategy. Be willing to take calculated risks and experiment further. Don’t use this as an excuse to stop trying, and always maintain a positive attitude. Don’t dwell on the past beat yourself up, or have all this negative self-talk. That’s not going to help you learn. That’s not going to help you get to a new level.
Lee Kantor: If you can kind of reset your mindset to saying that you’re not failing, you’re learning or you’re experimenting or you’re iterating, you’re going to be able to keep moving forward in a much more productive manner.
