Pursue Failure?!?!
In yesterday’s post, I talked about the concept of “pursuing failure.” I think about this idea so much that I forget how weird and controversial this topic is. First, let me clarify. I don’t advocate pursuing intentional, known failure. That would run afoul of another frequently discussed concept on this blog: the relentless pursuit of excellence.
We should strive to be excellent at everything we do. We should strive to achieve every dream, goal, and objective we aspire to. Here’s where the failure part comes into play. If we’re willing to shoot higher, dream bigger, and get uncomfortable, failure is inevitable. Anyone can avoid failure. The only prerequisite for avoiding failure is to refrain from doing difficult things. Therefore, if we never fail at anything, it’s likely a sign that we’re not pushing ourselves hard or far enough.
I’m leaning into things that are so ridiculous and audacious that failure is almost inevitable. Even if I’m as excellent as I can possibly be, there’s almost no way to fully avoid failure. Sometimes, soul-crushing, publicly embarrassing failure. It’s a tremendously uncomfortable concept to wrestle with, but once we come to terms with that reality, it presents us a critical fork in the road: play it safe or go for it. After years of basking in the play-it-safe camp, I took a hard turn and realized life is better lived in the go-for-it camp. Does it always go well? No, not at all. Sometimes, it feels like a big ball of flames. Other times, however, it’s glorious.
The bigger question we have to ask ourselves is what regrets our future selves will or will not have. When I look back on some of my biggest failures over the past decade, I definitely wish I could get some do-overs or second chances. However, I don’t think I’ll look back with regret. Conversely, I have some deep regrets for the things I was too scared, too safe, too timid to pursue. I’ll never get those opportunities back, but I don’t have to make those same lame decisions in the future.
Therefore, when I talk about pursuing failure, that’s exactly what I’m talking about. Pursue big things with a posture of excellence, and let the cards fall how they may. Sometimes we will achieve glorious wins, and sometimes we’ll suffer humiliating failures. We can’t have one without the other.
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