The legendary Basketball player, Michael Jordan once said – “I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times I’ve been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life and that is why I succeed”

If you are someone who is looking forward to a challenging assignment in a new/complex domain, want to start your own venture and be an entrepreneur or be the torchbearer of innovation, you cannot fear failure. In fact, I would not even term it as failures – they are just like falling a couple of times before you learn to run.

As a kid what do we do when we fall when trying to sprint? – We dust ourselves and continue. That is exactly the mindset that one should have when trying something new. As we grow we are told to be “perfectionists” and this attitude takes a backseat.

You have to look at these moments as opportunities where you try something new and learned from that experience. It does not matter if you did not succeed, the key takeaway should be:

“Did I learn something new”?
”Did I enjoy what I did”?
“Will I do it again”?
“How would I approach the same task if I did it again”?

And if and at the end of all these prodding questions, you conclude “Let me try again” – I can assure you, you have an attitude that takes you forward in life.