Your biggest failure
In our executive assessment practice, we often ask the question “what is your biggest failure?”. Some people struggle to answer this question, perceiving nothing that they have done as a failure. Others have ready answers at their fingertips, having rehearsed an answer for how it helped them learn and grow. Still more have “biggest” failures that are even more damning.
My biggest embarrassment was when I made a calculation error in an excel sheet.
My biggest failure was when I forgot to follow up with a client.
My worst mistake was when I sent an email to the wrong person.
All of these mistakes, errors, and embarrassments were minor and indicative of a life devoid of risk. And, the fact is, most of us are wired this way. For humans, losses loom larger. We tend to avoid being wrong, making mistakes, and failing. So, we often try to take those opportunities out of the equation by sticking to the safe path, behaving within our comfort zone, and not truly being learners.
Analyzing people who have been extremely successful will show that most have taken big risks and have had their share of failures (though many define these as successes or learning opportunities). Sometimes spectacularly and repeatedly so. Think of Milton Hershey, founder of—you guessed it—Hershey’s chocolate. He failed as a printer, and then drove three candy companies into the ground before finding the one that worked. At any point, he could have thrown in the towel and given up. But, instead, he learned from each failure and adjusted his business model to accommodate those learnings. Now, we eat his chocolate every Halloween (and sometimes at the check out).
A good practice can be to evaluate your own biggest failure as an indicator of whether you have been taking adequate risk on your path to learning and success. Consider the following questions regarding your own life:
What is my biggest failure?
Why did it occur?
What was the impact?
Was the failure based on an intentional action (e.g., risk) or unintentional (e.g., inattention/mistake)?
What did I learn from it?
How could I fail bigger in a way that allows me to fall forward?
Remember, you will never hit a home run when you aim for a grounder.