FAIL FAST AND FORWARD

Failure will occur on your journey, but when it happens, never romanticize it like a trophy on a cabinet. Nor should you brood over it and be held back by regrets. 

The key takeaway from every failure is the lesson; make sure you get this lesson as quickly as possible, and arm it like a sword in your next fight. 

The following are hard learned guidelines to fail fast, learn faster, and keep moving forward.

FAIL FAST 1: Revenge is not worth it:

"The best revenge is massive success - Frank Sinatra

The temptation for revenge is real, especially when another person instigated the failure. If you go in reverse for payback, what do you gain? Only temporary satisfaction. Instead, why not use that pain as fuel for your next task instead of vengeance?  This raw, unadulterated emotion you feel is the perfect fuel to propel you to your next big objective; don't waste this fuel by driving in reverse. 

I am not preaching pacifism or telling you to be the bigger person. No!. I advise you to use that precious energy wisely.

I have applied this principle across all areas of my life: friends, family, relationships, religion, and work, and it always yields the same results. Once you get to your destination and look back at the person who wronged you, you realize the person is no longer worth your energy. That, my friend, is what we call GROWTH.  

Boycotting revenge, especially if you have the means to, is one of the hardest things you will ever do. But if you want to grow fast, leave vengeance behind and channel that fire into building something greater.

FAIL FAST 2: Take responsibility

He who asks is a fool for five minutes, but he who does not ask remains a fool forever - Chinese proverb.

Our initial instinct as humans is to point fingers when something goes wrong. It always feels good to let someone take the fall so you save face. But what if I told you that the cost of saving face is you repeating the same mistake over and over again?

Leading psychologist Edward Thorndike’s Law of Readiness teaches that the human mind refuses to learn unless you are ready to.  If you convince yourself it wasn't your fault, you will never learn from your mistake.

Taking responsibility for a fault is not natural; it takes conscious effort. There are 2 main ways of thinking you can employ to help take responsibility. 

1. Everything that happens in my life is my fault. This radical mentality takes accountability to the next level. It forces you to take ownership and dig into the root cause.
2. How did I contribute to this failure? There are times the failure is genuinely not your fault, but this question will reveal hidden contributions. You welcoming the wrong person into your circle was how you contributed. This insight empowers you to choose better next time.

FAIL FAST 3: Find the root cause

To truly fail forward, you must uncover the root cause. Taking responsibility alone is not enough.- Hayford O.A

You need to get to the root cause. This is where the lessons in failure reveal themselves.

In his book Your Next 5 Moves, Patrick Bet-David highlights the power of the word “WHY?”.  We can apply the same method to find the root cause of the failure.

1. Ask: What caused this failure?
2. Write the answer
3. Then ask: Why did that happen?
4. Repeat this process till you can no longer answer the WHYs. 
5. Your last answer is the root cause.

This is where the priceless lesson in failure reveals itself. Once you find the root cause, don't just put a plaster on the wound, but put in effort to find a permanent solution and make a vow to never repeat the same mistake.

In the next section, we will learn how mentors play a key role in our success. 

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