Why failure can help you with new solutions?

It can be annoying to fail. However, it may also encourage you to view issues differently. Fresh approaches also result from this new viewpoint. Great ideas frequently come to mind when there is a specific issue, or when something has failed. Failure can act as a catalyst for advancement if the failure itself motivates you to discover a solution.

Consider the ATM, which was invented as a result of John Shephard-Barron forgetting to pick up some cash from the bank one day. In other words, he was unable to pay his bills on time. However, his failure led to the invention of a brand-new remedy: a cash dispenser that is operational after bank hours.

Failure is a technique to fine-tune complex processes in addition to sparking the development of new solutions, as it enables us to identify the elements of a problem. It is more difficult to fine-tune a process the more sophisticated it is. It is more difficult to pinpoint exactly what went wrong when things are complex.

Say you want to contribute to enhancing education across the African continent. How can you tell if your assistance is having an impact? Since there are too many variables involved, relying solely on grades to provide information is insufficient.

However, it becomes simpler to identify which tactics are effective and then use them on a larger scale by allowing oneself to fail on a small scale. For instance, a group of economists in Kenya wished to raise the standard of the neighborhood schools. They began by keeping track of the grades at various schools and experimenting with different strategies to see if they might raise test scores.

Their initial suggestion was to distribute free textbooks. They soon realized, however, that schools that were not given this assistance performed just as well. So they tried a variety of various strategies. De-worming medication was the final answer they found, and it actually helped raise grades. This kind of small-scale solution can then be tried on a larger scale.

It is not sufficient to know in your head that failure is useful if you want to fully benefit from it. Additionally, you must have a good rapport with it. You will wind up failing more than required if you can’t manage failure or if you choose to avoid it.

In fact, people who are afraid of failing may put up unneeded obstacles to their achievement. For instance, the author remembers several of his classmates who used to go out partying the night before exams since they were the “popular kids.” These pupils chose to take measures to lessen the sting of probable failure because they were so terrified of falling short of expectations. Everything was alright if they performed well on the test. However, if they ended up failing, they might put it down to their drinking binge.

This is obviously a horrible strategy for development. In order to grow, you must be willing to fail and accept responsibility for that failure since it is a great teacher. But if you’re unwilling to listen, no teacher in the entire world can help you.

Spending time and effort reflecting on your errors is the key to learning from failure. Unfortunately, most would prefer to ignore their mistakes than to admit them. This is a serious issue since how we respond to failure typically determines how successful we are.

An experiment conducted by a group of psychologists from Michigan State University provides proof of this. Children who felt they were born brilliant and those who believed they might become smarter with work were split into two groups for the experiment.

Each group had assignments that got harder as they went along, with the intention of making the kids fail. The results of the experiment showed that kids who thought they could become better were able to utilize their mistakes as a springboard for success in later exams. The other kids, who thought their intelligence was predetermined, just gave up.

Admitting to mistakes is challenging. But in order to reach your greatest potential, you must not only accept that you make mistakes but also view them as necessary steps on the road to success. Indeed, there can be no development without failure.

Check out my related post: Why should we be honest about failure?

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Interesting reads:

https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/24611735-black-box-thinking