It’s really a win, not a failure.
It can be scary to live in a state of ambiguity. To not really know what will happen next when you get fired, business fails or you lose a deal that was crucial to your business. When we experience a serious setback it is emotionally exhausting. One way to get back up again and keep moving forward is to look at that setback as a win, not a failure because in reality we do not know really know if it was a failure or was a blessing in disguise. We can only trust that it will all make sense when we look back.
There is a Taoist story of an old farmer who had worked his crops for many years. One day his horse ran away. Upon hearing the news, his neighbors came to visit. “Such bad luck,” they said sympathetically. “Maybe,” the farmer replied. The next morning the horse returned, bringing with it three other wild horses. “How wonderful,” the neighbors exclaimed.
“Maybe,” replied the old man.
The following day, his son tried to ride one of the untamed horses, was thrown, and broke his leg. The neighbors again came to offer their sympathy on his misfortune.
“Maybe,” answered the farmer.
The day after, military officials came to the village to draft young men into the army. Seeing that the son’s leg was broken, they passed him by. The neighbors congratulated the farmer on how well things had turned out.
“Maybe,” said the farmer.
Failure allowed for a bigger door to open.
Isadore Sharp, founder of Four Seasons, in his book Four Seasons: The Story of a Business Philosophy details a time when he was looking to build a thousand apartments and two hundred room hotel complex in Vancouver, on waterfront land known as Coal Harbour, adjacent to Stanley Park. At the time, the mayor of Vancouver wanted the complex to be moved 100 feet further away from Stanley Park but Issy was insistent and claimed the property was already hundreds of feet from the Stanley Park entrance. In the end Issy lost this deal.
“That was one of my biggest gaffes, one that might have again altered the course of my life. If that project had gone ahead and I had built all those apartments, I could have made so much money that I might never have become a hotelier.” Isadore Sharp
Failure allowed for the right door to open.
A Baltimore TV producer told Oprah Winfrey she was “unfit for television news.”
According to Become Your #1 Fan, Winfrey was fired from her evening news reporter gig with Baltimore’s WJZ-TV because she got too emotionally invested in her stories.
As a consolation, though, he offered her a role on a daytime TV show, People Are Talking.
The show became a hit, and Winfrey stayed for eight years, according to Biography.com.
Winfrey eventually became the host of The Oprah Winfrey Show, which aired for 25 seasons. She’s currently worth an estimated $3 billion, according to Forbes.
Failure is a guidepost to keep on the right path.
Lisa Kudrow got fired from Frasier, which at the time felt like the biggest blow in her career. If she had not gotten fired she would not have been cast for Friends.
https://www.goalcast.com/2017/09/26/lisa-kudrow/
Look at that set back as a step forward and that failure as a win. Because the only thing worse than experiencing a failure is to stay in that stagnant state and mindset for too long. Get up, keep moving forward, you are onto something bigger and better than you can even imagine.
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