How Failure and Success Go Hand in Hand

Many of us start out our professional careers hoping we’ll never have to experience being fired. Our perception of being let go from a job is naturally negative. After all, when you’re fired from a job, it means you’re not good enough right? Well, yes to an extent. It means you’re not “good enough” for that particular company or position but it doesn’t mean you won’t be a success. Quite the opposite actually, if you take the experience of failure and use to positively change your outlook for the future.

Let me tell you a secret. Yours truly has been fired. And I’ve been fired more than once! Let’s just say I wasn’t cut out to be a waitress. Yes being fired sucks. I was fired from my first job when I was 20. I accepted a job at Swiss Chalet as a server. Well I kept forgetting to place people’s orders with the kitchen and low and behold, two weeks into the job, I was fired. I was so embarrassed that I kept “going” to work for the next week so I didn’t have to admit what had really happened.

I could have felt sorry for myself but instead I picked myself up and sent out resumes, this time to different jobs. I quickly landed another job, this time at a home for children with mental handicaps. Guess what? I LOVED it and I spent the entire summer overjoyed with what I was able to teach these kids and how I saw them grow over a matter of months. I still look back on that summer and think that getting fired was the best thing that happened to me.

That wasn’t the last time I would be fired though. Unfortunately it happened two more times! Yes you guessed it; I’m the lousiest waitress in the world. It took three times for me to understand that.

The point I’m trying to make is that we have all failed at something. Some of us more than others. And some of us won’t admit to it because society won’t accept failure but in order to succeed, you need to take risks and with risks, comes failure.

I truly believe that if I wasn’t let go from any job, I wouldn’t have had the courage to try freelancing. Past failures have taught me that the worst that can happen is my feelings get hurt. I can easily pick myself up and try again.

The societal “norm” is to work for someone else. So few of us think of working for ourselves because we are scared of the biggest “F” word known to the western world…FAILURE.  80% of businesses fail within the first five years.  Of course that scares me because I love what I’m doing right now. But truthfully, when I look at my current situation, I think of all the experience I’ve gained in just over a year. How my management skills have increased, how my accounting skills have increased and how much knowledge I’ve gained from writing different topics for different businesses. I’m in awe of how much I have grown, both personally and professionally.  

If we’re never criticized, how are we supposed to learn? Of course I am still uncomfortable with criticism but I’ve experienced it and still experience it and I have to say it’s the easiest way to grow. Criticism inspires me to do even better, look for creative solutions to move forward and find another way. If you never come out of your comfort zone, how are you going to succeed otherwise?

Published in Articles, General Interest, Motivation and tagged with failure, failure brings success, success