Celebrate failure
I am the kind of guy who thinks that we need to celebrate failure. Not really celebrating it as in a party, but in the way that failure is not that bad. Failure is for me a chance to learn. Failure is also a way for me to get better at something. For sure, it’s not happy to fail, but I think it’s one of the ways to grow.
You need to take advantage of it. Nobody is dead from failing something (I don’t talk about dangerous things, but rather things that we are not able to finish, do correctly or errors we did in our life). Let me give you one example, among a lot, of this on my personal life.
The day I think I would be a partner
In one of my jobs, I had discussions with my boss about being a partner in the business. We had a lot of great discussions about this, and we concluded that we could talk about this after the rush for delivering the new version of one of our software. A couple of weeks after, my boss asked me to go to his desk to talk about business. I was sure I was going to be a partner or near to be one, but he told me that I will lose my job, because we didn’t have enough contracts.
At the beginning, I was a shock. I never saw this happen. It was the first time I lose a job, but at least, it wasn’t my fault.
What I learned from this
For me, it was certainly a fail to lose my job, but after this period of my life, I could find the positive things, and I learn from these things:
- I learn that I really need to have some money saved for times like this. You never know when this will happen again.
- I learn that no job is really secure, even not the one I have now.
- I learn that I could be successful by being my own boss, and that I can build my business (it’s what I did after that).
- I learn that all the time I invested in my side projects, in events where I go and with my online presences were a lot benefic on many sides.
I would be able to give you more examples of the things I learn or examples of failure in my life that was caused by me or not, but you get the point. It’s not that I couldn’t learn these things elsewhere, or that I would never have learned these if I didn’t fail, but I learn these from this failure.
FailCamp Montreal
The last time I took a beer with my friend Joey, he talked to me about FailCamp. I was so impressed by the idea, that I thought that it could be a good event to have in Montreal. Here is a little description about what is a FailCamp:
FailCamp is a celebration of failure. It’s about sharing your tales of epic fail and the lessons you learned from them. It’s about learning not to view failure as defeat, but as a learning opportunity and stepping stone to success. It’s about taking away the fear of failure and learning to take a chance, think big and achieve what you thought you couldn’t.
Like Uncle Sam, I want you to…
This kind of event is only as good as if people want to participate, by being there or by presenting. I don’t thing it’s gonna be a big organization, but I don’t want to make one if I’m the only one that will celebrate failure: in other words, I want to validate the idea with you guys (I don’t talk about having 100 people, but maybe 10-20 to have enough things to share and people to network with). So I’ll need you for two things:
- If you think it’s a good idea to have a FailCamp in Montreal, please leave a comment here. That will show me that you want one.
- If you love the idea, see number 1, and share this page with your network on Twitter, Google+, Facebook, LinkedIn (name it)…
Creative Commons Image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nimbupani/2407313614/
Learn, good. Like history and repetition. Celebrate… not so much, well not for me. I hate failure with a passion, I fight like an animal in trap to avoid failure. Like the Buddhists say, life is a bridge, cross it but do not build refuge on it.
I really think we will have good discussions with a lot of my blog posts, and I love it!
Here, I don’t say that you need to think to fail, but that if you failed, it’s not the end of the world. You can take the positive part of the failure and learn from it. Celebrating was more a way to explain this in a punchy line and to introduce the idea of a FailCamp.
Goes back to the Bhuddist saying. Just move on. Sometimes no contemplation is needed, you fall, you rise and keep moving… Like my riding coach used to say “The last obstacle fell… doesn’t matter, think about the next one” This was said literally and figuratively as well. But then he was a wise experienced dude.
I’ve heard somewhere that to make one home run, a professionnal baseball player will miss 500 throws. Yet you don’t see any athlete complaining each time they miss a ball and everybody admires someone who makes a great home run…
In that sense, I think FailCamp would have a purpose and I certainly would be interested in participating.
Thanks for your feedback.
By the way, I got curios about your blog and the certificate you talked about. I’ll read your blog for sure.
I think that it’s a good idea. Most people are so afraid of failure that they don’t do anything and hide under a rock. I don’t expect that kind of people to show up for obvious reasons, but those who show up will bring home ideas that they can teach to those who are afraid.
It’s the idea behind it: get something useful out of the experience of others. Thanks for the support in this little project.
FailCamp? I’m in !
Geebus that opened the doors to so many sarcastic jokes…
Failcamp, good idea.
Once, I planned to come. I needed to wake earlier but my clock slept, like me. I jumped on my bicycle, but it get deflated. I jumped in the bus and once seated I discovered that I did not knew the address. I went to two different places, in vain. When I went back home, my keys was inside and the door closed…
It was finally a great failcamp for me!
Haha, I supposed I count this like a “I want to come if you do one”, thanks.
If you hold a FailCamp in Montreal, I will attend and even help out!
Awesome, I’m in the process of making this happen. I’ll be more than happy to have you there! Some publicity about the event on your blog, when I’ll have more details, will be helpful for sure…
For those of you that liked the idea, the event is on it’s way at http://failcampmtl.org/ . You can already take your free ticket, places are limited.