The idea that failure and success can not exist simultaneously can inhibit our potential. I recently asked the questions “Why do we fear failure?” and “What do you do to overcome that fear?” in two different venues. Check out the conversations and feel free to add your opinions and experiences.
TED.com: http://www.ted.com/conversations/20381/why_do_we_as_a_society_fear_fa.html
SoulPancake.com: http://soulpancake.com/conversations/view/118203/why-do-we-as-a-society-fear-failure-what-do-you-do-to-overcome-this-fear.html
Failure is a very inhibiting feeling but I feel it is a prevalent factor in our increasingly apathetic society. How can we reverse that idea and show failure as a positive part of life?
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat. ” -Theadore Roosevelt