Why Failing is a Good Thing

Recently, I had the pleasure of attending my second TEDxArch event. If you haven’t had the chance to attend a TEDx event yet, make sure to keep an eye out for their upcoming event on December 6, 2014. During their recent event, Rocio Romero offered some advice for when things don’t go your way, why failing is a good thing.

“Failing is a gift…If I’m not failing, I’m not innovating.” – Rocio Romero

Rocio Romero’s entire speech was fascinating and inspiring, but those words stuck with me. Failing is often seen solely as a negative result, and it can be; failing can be exclusively negative if we allow it to be. Despite failure’s poor reputation, there are positives that surround failure. Failure shows you where improvements can be made – which is only negative if you don’t use that knowledge. Failure connects people – especially if we own up to our mistakes and shortcomings. Failure is a motivator – just the thought of failure can be a motivator for some, the rest of us we may need to feel it.

“…without the sting of failure to spur us to reassess and rethink, progress would be impossible.” – Hannah Bloch

So I have to ask…What was your most recent failure, what did you learn and how did you react?