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Showing posts with the label failure

I Fail Every Day

Success is like pregnancy  Everybody congratulates you but nobody knows how often you've been screwed. This joke was suggested to me on social media. It strikes me how thoroughly the algorithm must have analyzed my preferences in order to make such an accurate prediction, that I would enjoy it. However I would choose a slightly different analogy: Success is like impregnation: Everyone congratulates you but nobody knows how often you have screwed up. It is in screwing up that you'll learn the valuable lessons of life. You can think and analyze as much as you want. Analysis, planning and preparation are all fine. But only deliberate execution and the mistakes you make along your journey will guide you to success. That's beauty and pain in success at the same time. That is also the reason that success favors people who are passionate and enthusiastic about their journey and have a clear purpose. Enduring the frustration and the drawbacks along the way is much easier if you hav...

Failure Culture

The Default State of Society The other day I read a post on my company's intranet that stuck with me and made me think. I'll try to give it in my own words: A teacher entered the class room and started to write equations on the board. 1x9 = 9 2x9=18 3x9=27 The class watched and there was only the usual murmur while the teacher proceeded. 4x9=36 5x9=45 6x9=54 7x9=63 8x9=72 9x9=81 10x9=91 On finishing the teacher turned to the class and noticed some murmurs and giggles. He paused for a moment and the giggles increased. Some pupils started to laugh and after a while others joined in until a majority of pupils found amusement in the teacher's mistake and joined the laughter. After a while, when the laughter dampened down, the teacher said: "I made this mistake on purpose in order to demonstrate a point. I wrote ten equations on the board, of which nine were absolutely correct. Most of you however decided to focus on the one equation that was false. None of you gave me any ...