Meaningful Failures

Thomas Edison failed repeatedly at attempts to invent the incandescent light bulb. When asked by a reporter if he felt like a failure, Edison responded by saying that he had been successful in finding numerous ways not to build the light bulb. His response seems trite to us, but there is real meaning in what he had to say. Edison was indicating that we can benefit from our failures. For him, it was a simple process of elimination, and each failed attempt brought him closer to success.

For the most part, we don't view failures this way. We try at all cost to avoid failure, which isn't realistic at all. Consider that the highest single season batting average on record in major league baseball is .440, and was recorded in 1894 by Hugh Duffy of the Boston Beaneaters. That means he actually got a hit roughly four out of every ten times he came to the plate to face an opposing pitcher. The other six times out of ten, he failed. He failed more often than he succeeded, yet he holds the record for the best single season batting average in all of major league baseball.

We can't avoid failure. We will fail, and if history is any indicator, we will fail more often than we succeed. If that's the case, the way we handle those failures becomes extremely important. We have to look at our failures as learning opportunities, moments that we can use to sharpen our instincts, abilities, and understanding, so that we are better prepared to wrestle with future challenges and prevail.

We all face failure, Tomas Edison, Hugh Duffy, you, me. What we do with those failures, which are likely to come more often than successes, will impact large and significant portions of our lives over the long term.

It's worth noting that Hugh Duffy hit a meager .282 in his first year, but improved in every year leading up to his record setting season. He continued to improve, hitting over .300 in 12 of his 16 seasons, and finishing his career with a lifetime .326 batting average.

Failures can be very meaningful, if we will only learn from our failures and use them as opportunities.