The Art of Failure Part 1: Investing In Yourself
Starting your own business may be one of the most double-edged swords out there. On the one hand, you are filled to the brim with hope and excitement; anything seems possible as you venture out into uncharted territory on the quest to plant a new flag of establishment. On the other hand, it’s a terrifying experience, which can easily numb itself into more subtle sensations, such as doubt, apathy, depression, or just a lack of motivation. Where does that come from exactly? Simply, it comes from the fear of failure. If you fail, you can likely cost yourself time, money, inspiration, and even dignity. You could end up with nothing having come out of it. So what I want to penetrate into is that fear itself.
I want to talk specifically about losing. Nobody wants to lose at anything. It can be sports, it could be an argument or debate you’re having with someone, losing out to another person for a job, losing money, a relationship, etc. When you lose, it’s seen all too often through the eyes of incompetence. This is where the fear stems from. You aren’t good enough, and somebody else out there is better than you. You’re not worthy.
People even take losing at the casino personally, when much of gambling is a matter of chance or luck. When a losing streak strikes, many feel incompetent, become emotional, and withdraw more money, which they very well may also lose. Often the person is overcome with even worse feelings and thoughts of inadequacy. This can potentially happen whenever you lose at anything at all. But what if it were possible to turn the paradigm of losing on its head? What if losing can be used as an advantage, not in some flowery positive thinking delusional sort of way, but in a literal way? How can this be done exactly? It can be done by a slight shift of orientation.
Shifting orientation means shifting your starting point. What is your intention going into the entire endeavor in the first place? If you go in simply “to win”, whatever that means for you, you then have a possibility of losing, which you want to avoid. Thus the fear or anxiety kicks in, and it can directly affect your performance, many times negatively. You can’t lose. Or can you? What if you were to shift your original intention and starting point? Not to simply win, but to win OR lose? What if you were to bring the point of value of losing up to the same vibrational essence as that of winning? Winning is winning, but losing is also winning. Then the result wouldn’t matter so much or be so relevant.
This expands your potential because the journey becomes equivalent with the destination itself. The gap is closed between where you want to be and where you actually are right now. There is no “there” to get to. WHAT IS…is what you want. Suddenly, you’re in the driver’s seat, but you’re not necessarily reliant on trying to make anything any specific way. You might aim for making things a certain way, but you’re wide open. Anything is possible, and there’s only a forward step to be taken, because losing is valued just as much as winning. Yes, this does sound kind of like flowery positive affirmation type of stuff, so I will present some practical examples of this in action.
In capitalism, the free market itself is an expression of the Art of Failure. Businesses are born and die by it. There’s something known as “creative destruction” that I believe penetrates into this notion of failure as being a function of value. Monopolies can be uprooted by smaller competition when they become too corrupt because the free market thrives on voluntary demand. If a monopoly decides to get greedy and attempts to corner a market by jacking up prices, something interesting happens in economic history. An unexpected dark horse company or product arises out of nowhere with a much cheaper and more efficient solution (and also perhaps higher ethics), which organically shifts the voluntary demand in their favor. This is why no monopoly has ever lasted indefinitely. At some point, the creative destruction takes hold. The failure of the monopoly to execute its greedy intention leads to a fresh new wave of innovation that may not have ever happened otherwise.
If every Rome didn’t crumble, then there would be no growth in societies. “Rome” in my use of the word is an analogy for any establishment that has firmly taken hold of a culture. This could be a social movement or ideology, a company, a famous musical act, an entire nation, or anything else. The creative destruction is what keeps things changing and reinventing themselves, and the Art of Failure is the conscious utilization and harnessing of this creative destruction.
When Carl Jung failed to get on the same page as his colleague and tutor, Sigmund Freud, about the nature of the unconscious, it resulted into Jung breaking off and becoming specialized in his approach out of which a whole new branch of psychology was born. It all stemmed from Jung’s failure to impress the man who taught him, which was the end of their relationship. This could have been viewed negatively, but instead Jung used this moment to his advantage.
Punk rock is another perfect example of this creative destruction. When Led Zeppelin’s 1975 song, ‘Kashmir’ made its appearance, it was the mighty Zeppelin at their most royal. They were truly on top of the rock world, solidifying the archetype of the genre in the process. And yet, the industry had become bloated by this point in time. Money and excess were at a certain peak, and every progressive rock band would spend too many hours in the studio stroking their egos and crafting twenty layer songs of magnificent complexity. Creating musical masterpieces became a certain norm. Rock was losing its edge. Something or somebody needed to shake things up.
1975 turned out to be the eve of a whole new movement, which would strip Rock ’n’ Roll back down to its raw essentials. It came to be called “punk.” Suddenly, by 1977, being a virtuoso was no longer cool to a growing amount of people. Twenty minute solos became repulsive. Instead, if you could play two chords and you had the necessary rebellious attitude, even if your guitar was out of tune (or even especially if it was out of tune), you could qualify to be in a punk band. This is one of many examples of Rock ’n’ Roll transmuting itself into a whole new form and regenerating itself through the Art of Failure. Suddenly, being “good” at your instrument was “bad”, and being “bad” at it was “good”. What had become bloated in perfection had isolated a certain population of people, which spawned a new revolution in rock music that consciously sought to be minimalistic.
Adam Smith’s notion of “the invisible hand” also correlates to all of this. When the cryptocurrency known as Ethereum was hacked in 2016 in a crowdfunding endeavor known as the DAO, this led to millions of dollars of stolen funds. A hard fork in the code of the blockchain was decided to be implemented that would restore the money back to Ethereum’s users. When this happened, a debate ensued in the community regarding the integrity of such a fork, as it would be violating the immutability of the blockchain. Some felt that immutability was a key feature and reason for the existence and creation of blockchain itself.
But no one expected this small minority of people to remain on the original code once the hard fork was launched. Everyone was expected to go with the flow and allow the change to happen. At the very least, this original code which had been mostly deserted was seen as a joke and many thought it would eventually fail in a short amount of time. However, this is not what happened. It still remains to this day ranked in the top twenty cryptocurrencies in the world, and is known as Ethereum Classic. This is a prime example of Smith’s “invisible hand” taking place. An unexpected consequence manifested thanks to the creative destruction of the free market, and what was seen as a failure ended up being a success by remaining a failure. The small minority decided to stay on the hacked code, and Ethereum Classic was born and prevailed against all odds. This is an expression of the Art of Failure. Something “bad” (the hacked code) was consciously embraced and transformed into something brand new.
Another example arises in the world of relationships. If you ask someone out and they reject you, you can either feel incompetent or you can feel empowered and gain self-respect by realizing that the best person for you is someone that you don’t have to change your authentic self for. If this is really embraced, then the outcome of asking someone out isn’t a huge deal for you anymore. Whether they say yes or no, you’re moving one step forward in aligning with your authenticity, and gaining confidence along with it. You’re moving a vibrational step in the right direction to finding the right person. If you’re hinging all of yourself onto whether that person says yes or no, fear arises, which leads to decreased confidence, falling out of alignment with yourself, and increased chances of you getting that which you are trying to desperately avoid: Failure. But if you shift your orientation, this no longer matters. This can be a very liberating shift.
Alchemy was a noble endeavor in history. The Philosopher’s Stone was sought to be able to transmute base metals into gold and ALSO to achieve immortality. The alchemists were shooting for the stars, seeking nothing less than a full understanding of the Universe’s workings. But as far as anyone knows, as long as alchemy existed, the fabled Philosopher’s Stone was never found. “The Royal Art” had failed. All of the generations and hundreds of years of effort amounted to nothing. Or did it? Alchemy grew into disrepute, and yet, what evolved out of alchemy was chemistry, which based many fundamental methods, tools, and insights directly off of alchemy that are still used to this very day. The entire foundation of chemistry is established due to alchemy. The scientific revolution itself could never have been born if it weren’t for a much more unenlightened and superstitious Dark Age. There is no distinct “line” between these two ages of alchemy and chemistry. It’s one movement.
This isn’t the only evolution that happened. Back to Carl Jung, the psychological side of alchemy became the centerpiece of his entire practice once he had his falling out with Freud. Over time, that which failed, succeeded.
When you’re investing in yourself, such as starting a business, your original intention is most crucial. Finding your most authentic expression in your endeavor is a key to utilizing the Art. With a shift in orientation, every lost job, missed opportunity, financial setback, or otherwise negative outcome can be used to your advantage of what you’re doing. If your business fails to get off the ground, you’re just as much at ground zero as you were before you began. This is the moment where you can either feel incompetent, or get empowered by the experience gained.
You now have the opportunity to tap into that original creative inspiration that got you to start in the very first place, except now you have more experience and have likely expanded your knowledge. Even if money was lost, the transaction was the insights that were gained and the experiences that you had, and also the lessons that were learned. Obviously, invest at your own risk, but what I’m pointing at is a kind of alchemy of attitude.
If you shift your orientation, everything can be used to your advantage. Winning and losing become two sides of one coin. For all you know, getting that certain job may stunt your growth, while losing that job may open a whole new avenue for you unexpectedly. Many great ideas are born out of the ashes of another failed idea. If you stay true to your authentic self and expression, then you can utilize The Art of Failure to get a sense of the next step to take moment to moment.
