Get out there and fail today!

“For me to be where I am, I would’ve had to have failed much more than I’ve succeeded. There is no way to be as successful as I am or to be the person that I am without the failure. […] It’s important for us as human beings to fail. And by the way, we don’t connect over our successes, we connect with each other, we connect with humanity, through our failures.” 

This is an excerpt from an interview with actress Melora Hardin on the podcast, Office Ladies.

I talk about the idea of failure more frequently than you might think. I talk about it with clients, when I speak at events, and in my personal life with friends and family. But these aren’t easy conversations because failure is an uncomfortable topic. We don’t want to admit to failing. However, as Melora so eloquently said, “we don’t connect over our successes, we connect with each other, we connect with humanity, through our failures.”

What we love about success stories is not that someone succeeded. It’s what they overcame to succeed. It’s how they failed along the way and how they succeeded despite their challenges and struggles. Everyone loves an underdog because they start out having already failed at something and everyone, even if they don’t want to admit it, can relate. 

For most of us, the first things we attempted in life resulted in our first failures. Trying to walk, trying to ride a bike, trying to see clearly without glasses (oh wait, was that one just me?). But we learned, adjusted, and eventually succeeded (and got glasses). As we get older, that’s still what failure is: a chance to learn and adjust. The only difference is that we put so much more pressure on ourselves not to fail and we forget that the only way to success is through failure.

So get out there and fail today! You never know how close you might be to success.