Celebrate Failure & Learn From It

Fear of Failure is Real

Fear of failure is real in our society. We celebrate success but never failure. For example, we celebrate when we win new business, get a promotion, pass an exam or even lose a couple of kilos. I don’t recall organising a get-together to celebrate one’s failure. Unfortunately, most failures are swept under the carpet and sometimes imagined to have not happened.

Failure is Frowned Upon in Corporate World

Failure is frowned upon in the corporate world. You will not get that promotion and you certainly do not want to put it on your resume for your next job. In your next job interview, you don’t talk about it as a key achievement.

Avoid Failure at all Costs

I have been drilled since young never to fail and avoid failure at all costs. Growing up in Singapore, academic excellence was everything. The fear of failure and getting mediocre grades were really strong. I remember in junior college, my Economics teacher reprimanded my classmate and I for performing poorly in a test. She suggested that we drop the subject and not be under her tutorage. Looking back, it would be nice if she had provided us tips on how to improve our understanding of the subject. Unfortunately, no additional coaching was offered. But, thank goodness my classmate and I continued the subject and we passed it for GCE A Levels.

And only now, I have learnt that failure is part and parcel of living a full life and improving one’s skills. It is impossible to not have failed in anything in one’s journey. And I realise the times I failed were because I took a risk or I tried something new.

Failure as Defined by IDEO CEO, Tim Brown

And when you listen to IDEO CEO Tim Brown, you will realise that failure is actually a good thing to improve oneself. As IDEO CEO Tim Brown said: “Don’t think of it as failure, think of it as designing experiments through which you’re going to learn.”

“Failure is an inherent part of the process because we’ll just never get it right on our first try. In fact, getting it right on the first try isn’t the point at all. The point is to put something out into the world and then use it to keep learning, keep asking, and keep testing. When human-centered designers get it right, it’s because they got it wrong first.”

Fear of Failure is Still Real

Fear of failure is still real for me. I don’t think I will ever not feel defeated if I fail anything. But, I will continually remind myself to celebrate failure and learn from it.

Audrey Ang is a Digital Marketer. She has worked on brands like eBay, Dell, Intel, Xian Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Disney Channel and CNN. She is also a co-founder of 2 tech startups in Bangkok and Singapore. Audrey can be contacted via Linkedin: https://sg.linkedin.com/in/audreyang and audreyang2011@gmail.com