# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
10 Great Articles & Essays about Success and Failure

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Great articles on success and failure -- The best success articles and failure articles

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
By the time Steve Jobs's Wikipedia page had been adjusted to past tense, eulogists had added a footnote to his biography of success. Failure.

Jobs, though wildly successful, also failed often and badly. Therein, we note, lies perhaps the larger lesson of his life: Sometimes you have to fail to succeed.

The truth is, you usually have to fail to succeed. No one emerges at the top. Even those born lucky eventually get a turn on the wheel of misfortune. Anyone with a résumé of accomplishments also has a résumé of failures, humiliations and setbacks. Jobs was fired by the company he co-founded. Yet it was during this period of exile that he picked up a little computer graphics company later called Pixar Animation Studios, the sale of which made him a billionaire.

This is to say, to fail is human. To resurrect oneself is an act of courage.

Jobs himself recognized his failures in a now-famous 2005 commencement speech at Stanford. He recalled sleeping on the floors of friends' dorm rooms and walking seven miles to a Hare Krishna temple for his one good meal of the week. One needn't make an appointment with the Genius Bar to glean the moral of this story.

Fear of failure isn't only an adult concern. From an early age, we are plagued with anxiety about performance. This seems a natural-enough evolutionary development. The strong and savvy survive (and get the girl). The less accomplished eat scraps and enjoy the company of human leftovers. "Losers," we call them. So habitual is our attention to failure that we even have a word - or at least the Germans do - for enjoying others': schadenfreude.

What possibly could make us take pleasure in another's failure? Simple. We love the company.

A history of human failure would make for a long and interesting read, yet we prefer books about success. We thrill at the end-zone victory dance, applaud the extra point, admire the perfect 10. In literature, what is redemption but recovery from human failing? We love no one more than the man or woman who says I made a mistake, I'm sorry, please forgive me. Forgive? We want to hoist the penitent on our shoulders.

An entire lexicon of cliches has evolved around the idea of failure and recovery. It's not the thing attained that matters; it's the journey that gives us life. The act of creation - the struggle - far exceeds the pleasure of the thing created. Unless, of course, it's an Apple iPhone 4S. BlackBerry? Not so much.

Recent acknowledgment of the power of failure, inspired by Jobs's too-soon demise, provides a welcome spiritual uplift for stressed-out adults. But we're missing an even more important morality tale that has profound consequences for our nation's future. Our obsession with success and our fear of failure has trickled down to ever-younger humans, our children, at great cost not only to their psychological well-being but also, ultimately, to our ability to compete in the global marketplace.

We're so afraid that our kids won't measure up that we drive them crazy with overbooked schedules and expectations and then create a sense of entitlement by insisting on assigning blame elsewhere when their performance is lackluster. Sideline parents, first cousins to back-seat drivers, who challenge coaches, teachers and umpires on behalf of their children are a relatively new development that can't be considered positive. When I wrote recently about the failure (there's that word again) of colleges to teach core curricula that engender critical thinking skills, dozens of professors wrote to complain of students who aren't willing to work hard (or show up) yet still expect good grades. Even in college, they said, parents pester professors for better marks for their little darlings.

In another famous commencement address, J.K. Rowling's to Harvard in 2008, the "Harry Potter" author eulogized her own valuable failures. "Failure gave me an inner security that I had never attained by passing examinations," she said. "Failure taught me things about myself that I could have learned no other way."

If we agree that wisdom, confidence and a better Apple are gifts of failure, then why are we so afraid to allow our children to experience it? In a culture where failure is not well-enough understood as necessary to growth - and accomplishment is diminished by a code of equal outcomes that enshrines entitlement - then no one gets wiser or better. And a nation populated by such people may not survive.
kathleenparker@washpost.com

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
By the time Steve Jobs's Wikipedia page had been adjusted to past tense, eulogists had added a footnote to his biography of success. Failure. Jobs, though wildly successful, also failed often and badly. Therein, we note, lies perhaps the larger lesson of his life: Sometimes you have to fail to succeed.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
"Few of our own failures are fatal," economist and Financial Times columnist Tim Harford writes in his new book, Adapt: Why Success Always Starts With Failure. This may be true, but we certainly don't act like it. When our mistakes stare us in the face, we often find it so upsetting that we miss out on the primary benefit of failing (yes, benefit): the chance to get over our egos and come back with a stronger, smarter approach.

According to Adapt, "success comes through rapidly fixing our mistakes rather than getting things right first time." To prove his point, Harford cites compelling examples innovation by trial-and-error from visionaries as varied as choreographer Twyla Tharp and US Forces Commander David Petraeus. I interviewed Harford over email to dig deeper into the counter-intuitive lessons of Adapt. What follows is a series of key takeaways on the psychology of failure and adaptation, combining insights from our conversation and the book itself.

The Wrong Way To React To Failure

When it comes to failing, our egos are our own worst enemies. As soon as things start going wrong, our defense mechanisms kick in, tempting us to do what we can to save face. Yet, these very normal reactions - denial, chasing your losses, and hedonic editing - wreak havoc on our ability to adapt.

Denial.

"It seems to be the hardest thing in the world to admit we've made a mistake and try to put it right. It requires you to challenge a status quo of your own making."

Chasing your losses.

We're so anxious not to "draw a line under a decision we regret" that we end up causing still more damage while trying to erase it. For example, poker players who've just lost some money are primed to make riskier bets than they'd normally take, in a hasty attempt to win the lost money back and "erase" the mistake.

Hedonic editing.

When we engage in "hedonic editing," we try to convince ourselves that the mistake doesn't matter, bundling our losses with our gains or finding some way to reinterpret our failures as successes.

We're so anxious not to "draw a line under a decision we regret" that we end up causing still more damage while trying to erase it.

The Recipe for Successful Adaptation

At the crux of Adapt lies this conviction: In a complex world, we must use an adaptive, experimental approach to succeed. Harford argues, "the more complex and elusive our problems are, the more effective trial and error becomes." We can't begin to predict whether our "great idea" will actually sink or swim once it's out there.Harford outlines three principles for failing productively: You have to cast a wide net, "practice failing" in a safe space, and be primed to let go of your idea if you've missed the mark.

Try new things.

"Expose yourself to lots of different ideas and try lots of different approaches, on the grounds that failure is common."

Experiment where failure is survivable.

"Look for experimental approaches where there's lots to learn - projects with small downsides but bigger upsides. Too often we take on projects where the cost of failure is prohibitive, and just hope for the best."

Recognize when you haven't succeeded.

"The third principle is the easiest to state and the hardest to stick to: know when you've failed."

The more complex and elusive our problems are, the more effective trial and error becomes.

How To Recognize Failure

This is the hard part. We've been trained that "persistence pays off," so it feels wrong to cut our losses and label an idea a failure. But if you're truly self-aware and listening closely after a "release" of your idea, you can't go wrong. Being able to recognize a failure just means that you'll be able to re-cast it into something more likely to succeed.

Gather feedback.

"Above all, feedback is essential for determining which experiments have succeeded and which have failed. Get advice, not just from one person, but from several." Some professions have build-in feedback: reviews if you're in the arts, sales and analytics if you release a web product, comments if you're a blogger. If the feedback is harsh, be objective, "take the venom out," and dig out the real advice.

Remove emotions from the equation.

"It's important to be dispassionate: forget whether you're ahead or behind, and try to look at the likely costs and benefits of continuing from when you are."

Don't get too attached to your plan.

"There's nothing wrong with a plan, but remember Von Moltke's famous dictum that no plan survives first contact with the enemy. The danger is a plan that seduces us into thinking failure is impossible and adaptation is unnecessary - a kind of 'Titanic' plan, unsinkable (until it hits the iceberg)."

Being able to recognize a failure just means that you'll be able to re-cast it into something more likely to succeed.

Creating Safe Spaces to Fail

Twyla Tharp says, "The best failures are the private ones you commit in the confines of your own room, with no strangers watching." She rises as 5:30 AM and videotapes herself freestyling for 3 hours each morning, happy if she extracts just 30 seconds of usable material from the whole tape. This is a great example of a "safe space to fail." But many of us don't have this luxury of time or freedom. So how do we create this space?

Practice disciplined pluralism.

Markets work by this process, encouraging the exploration of many new ideas as well as the ruthless weeding out of the ones that fall short. "Pluralism works because life is not worth living without new experiences." Try a lot of things, and commit only to what's working.

Finding "a safe space to fail is a state of mind."

Assuming that you don't operate a nuclear power plant for a living, you can probably infuse a bit more freedom and flexibility into your workday. Give yourself permission to test out a few off-the-wall ideas mixed in with the by-the-book ideas.

Imitate the college experience.

"College is an amazing safe space to fail. We are experimenting with new friends, a new city, new hobbies and new ideas - and we'll often mess up academically and socially as a result. But we know that as long as we don't screw up too dramatically, we'll finish college, graduate, and move on - that mix of risk and safety is intoxicating. Yet somehow as we grow older we lose it." -

What's Your Take?

Do you think that trial and error is the most effective approach for innovation? What are your tips for surviving failure?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
"Few of our own failures are fatal," economist and Financial Times columnist Tim Harford writes in his new book, Adapt: Why Success Always Starts With Failure . This may be true, but we certainly don't act like it.

# data[].attributes.body
1.Get another job that i like and can learn and grow from.

2. Start a business staining docks.

3. be able to grab the rim.

# data[].attributes.body
Through all the rain and the pain you have to keep a sense humor - Tupac Shakur