The Cost of Failure

As soon as it was pointed out to me it was like all the adrenaline left my body. I had been on cloud 9, selling lots of books and having great conversations with so many people, then in an instant I felt foolish. I couldn’t believe I let a typo slip through.

This was the first day I was using my custom-designed tablecloth. Last week's professional development post was actually inspired by the design process and seeking feedback. Unfortunately, I had gone through so many iterations that by the time I ordered the final version I failed to have anyone check it. When it was delivered I set it up and was so proud of myself, but didn’t notice the “l” missing from Impossible. I didn’t see it until someone pointed it out, now it’s all I see.

If I want to replace the tablecloth with the same one, it will cost me $318.17. In the grand scheme of things it’s an expensive mistake but not one that will break my bank account. In actuality, I probably won’t replace it and I’ll just flip the tablecloth around which means it will cost me nothing but my motivation.

The real cost of a mistake is not in the money, but in the motivation. Don’t let a small failure discourage you from your big goals.

Coincidentally, or maybe by design, about ten minutes before this mistake was pointed out to me I was chatting with two lovely ladies. We were talking about how failure is a part of reaching our goals and she brought up Spanx founder Sara Blakely and how she learned from her father to celebrate failure. In this business insider article, they describe how Sara’s father had them share their failures at the dinner table: 

“Instead of being disappointed or upset, he would celebrate their efforts… Eventually, Blakely began to find value in her shortcomings.”

Our mistakes have a way of growing in our minds until they take over; all the good things we did become overshadowed by that one little typo. We doubt our abilities, forget what we’re doing well, and start to retreat from our goals. The only way to keep this from happening is to get comfortable with failure. Celebrate it. Own it. Wear it proudly. When we can go into our goals with this mindset then a little failure doesn’t cost us a thing.