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Ten Life Lessons You Can Only Learn By Failing

This article is more than 6 years old.

Dear Liz,

I have had the worst year ever in 2017.

I got fired from my job (not laid off fired!) in January 2017. There were creative differences between me and the Art Director in the company, who wasn't even my boss but was still very powerful.

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I got fired in January and the Art Director was let go in April.

By then I was working for a freelance agency. I got hired on by one of my clients in July. That job started out great but the company got into a JV with one of their partners and they put me in charge of it.

The JV was a disaster, not because of the execution but because there was no agreement or cohesion between the partner firms. I tried for six months to make things work but it wasn't going to happen. I got laid off in December.

Now I'm out on the street again and feeling like a failure. What's my next step?

Thanks Liz!

Yours,

Cam

Dear Cam,

Let's stop and reflect for a moment. You started working for a company last summer and they put you in charge of a joint venture a few months later? You must see that you are impressive and show up as a smart and capable person.

You got fired from your job because you dared to disagree with a powerful executive. That's a badge of honor. Never feel bad about bringing yourself to work. That's the number one thing most working people are afraid to do!

Only people that take risks have the opportunity to fail, if there is such a thing as failure at all. Many wise people would say the idea of failure is made up to blame and shame people instead of celebrating the risks they take and the learning they get!

You haven't failed in any way. You have a great story to tell. We all tend to focus on the negative parts of our backgrounds. We think we have many things to apologize for, but in reality you have nothing to apologize for and no one to apologize to. You are perfect the way you are.

Your background is perfect for any company that is smart enough to see your gifts. If they can't see your talents, they don't deserve them!

Here are ten powerful life lessons you can only learn by "failing:"

1. The lesson that painful things can happen to you and you will survive them.

2. The lesson that when you feel your lowest, you realize what you have that no one can take away from you your resilience, your ethics and all the other qualities that make you a powerful person.

3. The lesson that just because higher-up people say "This idea can't fail!" doesn't make it true. Always trust your gut the most reliable guide you've got.

4. The lesson that when you are down, you learn who your true friends are.

5. The lesson that failing, getting up and trying again is the way to build muscles. It's the only way, in fact. You don't get stronger by sailing through life without facing obstacles.

6. The lesson that what felt like failure in the moment eventually becomes powerful learning that will help you enormously in the future.

7. The lesson that if other people want to judge you because they think you're a failure, that's fine those people don't matter to you anyway.

8. The lesson that you can only feel like a failure by buying into the idea that life is all about winning and losing. It's not.

9. The lesson that the best people are the people who never face adversity. That's absurd! People who face and surmount adversity are the strongest people you will meet.

10. The lesson that failing and trying again are fun, once you get used to the feeling of free fall!

Entrepreneurs and many other successful people are so used to failing and recovering, rebuilding, taking a risk and failing again that they no longer distinguish between success and failure. To them, it's all just learning the fun kind and the not-so-fun kind. Nobody ever said life was supposed to be nothing but fun. Wouldn't a steady diet of fun become less fun over time? We'd have to think so!

All the best to you,

Liz

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