Here’s my entry in the Pilot Pen #PowerToThePen campaign. Pilot Pen is asking bloggers to actually write a post, and then post a picture of it. The idea is to either write a post to the youth of today, or to your younger self. I think my post works for either, I definitely wish I’d known about the power of failure a bit earlier in my life. To get the disclosures out of the way, Pilot Pen is compensating me via cash and some cool pens to be involved in the #PowerToThePen campaign, but it isn’t tied to their sponsorship of #Blogchat for August.
I hope you enjoy the post, it was kinda fun to actually write a post like this! If you want to participate in #PowerToThePen, check out the Power To The Pen site.
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
Great post Mack. This is something I dearly wish I had know when I was younger. It is something that greatly affected me for years. Failure was to be avoided at all costs and often meant that I didn’t try something or put myself out there in order to avoid it.
It has taken me many years to learn that failures are a part of the process of living. What is scarier than failure itself is being so stuck by fear of failure that you miss out on the adventure of life and exploring your full potential.
Today I am still afraid of failure but I don’t let it stop me. I actively seek out new experiences and know that I will fail sometimes. When I do, I now learn what I can from the experience and move on.
Thank you Jennifer. I still fear failure myself, but I have learned that it can also be a learning experience. As I said in the ‘post’, I think the only way failure is truly bad is if we refuse to pick ourselves back up after we’ve been knocked down.
I once heard this saying on of all things an episode of King of the Hill. The native american character said ‘Our people have a saying that when we pray to the spirits for strength, they send us difficulty so that we might become stronger as we overcome it’. I think that applies to failure as well, it’s really a chance for us to improve and become better and stronger.
Cool promo from Pilot, cool post by Mack. Cool all around!
Like Jennifer, I wish someone had taught me about the value of failure earlier. It may have led to more risks, and bigger risks — and bigger rewards!
It’s so refreshing to find blog posts like this, which give me both the courage to try new things and the perspective that it’s OK to mess up. I love it so much that I can’t help but mention it in my CisionBlog post.
Thank you for the wisdom.
Best,
Lisa
@cision
Thank you Lisa, I appreciate that
Beautiful!
I actually wrote a post on failure on my work-blog (behind the firewall, can’t share). The challenge to me was to share a story about something I failed at. I chose to share the first work-blog I tried to start about 6 years ago, which fell flat on its face. The company wasn’t ready. Or I didn’t prep the ground well enough. In any case, my first work-blog failed, but my current work blog is doing great! And it was kind of cool to write my “failure” essay on that topic.
Fail, fail again, fail better.
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