On Failing Well
— Nicholas Peters
You are going to fail. Often. That is not the problem. The problem is what you tell yourself about the failure.
My children,
You are going to fail. Often. In small ways and in ways that will feel, at the time, like the world is ending.
That is not the problem. Failure is not optional. It is the price of doing anything that mattered enough to attempt.
The problem is what you tell yourself about the failure.
If you tell yourself the failure means you are not enough, you will shrink your life until nothing important is ever risked again. If you tell yourself the failure was information — data on what to try next — you will keep moving, keep building, keep becoming.
I have failed more times than I can count. Deals that collapsed. Projects that did not work. Decisions I would give anything to take back. None of them defined me. What defined me was the next morning — whether I got back up and went back to work.
Fail well. Fail forward. And never let a failure convince you that the next attempt is not worth making.
With love,
Dad