What’s the best career advice you’ve ever been given?
This might sound a little unusual at first, but the best career advice I was ever offered was to learn to fail, or fail to learn. And you’d be amazed after hearing it once how many great leaders I’ve since heard espouse the benefits of failure.
Thomas Edison claims he: “Failed his way to success.” But does this kind of career advice really work in the modern world?
Why Failure Is Great Career Advice
To remain employable, let alone competitive, we must constantly learn and grow, and to learn and grow, we must fail. Making this great career advice.
Those who understand that failure is inextricably linked with achievement are the ones who learn, grow and ultimately do well. Their brains literally become smarter as a result as a result of this career advice.
It‘s no coincidence that some of the most successful people throughout history – Abraham Lincoln, Albert Einstein, Henry Ford, The Beatles, and Michael Jordon – are the ones who have failed the most.
In today’s new episode of ChelleMcQuaid TV, I’ll teach you how two beliefs in particular can help to embrace this great piece of career advice to bring more success + happiness into your life.
Click here for the tweetable — Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts – Winston Churchill @chellemcquaid.
Put this career advice to the test
This week when you notice you’re screwing something up take note of the beliefs – the stories you’re telling yourself – about what’s happening. Do you have a “fixed” mindset of “I’m not good enough, I’m such a failure, I hope nobody will notice” or are you using a “growth mindset” of “Whoops, okay what can I learn from this and how will I do better.”
Leave a comment below and let me know. Remember to be as specific as possible in your comment as your insights and experience helps us all.
Thanks for tuning in!
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Tags: advice, career, career advice, grow, growth mindset
Loved this vlog! Once I started embracing my failures at work my stress dropped away so much! I hadn’t thought of it as a growth mindset at the time – but I concur your approach completely works!
It’s funny isn’t it how sometimes the things we fear most – like making mistakes – end up being the best thing for us. Well done!
That’s some really good advise. I totally agree that failure isn’t a bad thing. One has to fail to learn. Thanks for sharing this.
Ok so on Friday I screwed up and had an order sent to completely the wrong address. Spent all day fixing it and it will cost $200 in courier fees. My boss was not happy to say the least. Normally would have whipped myself into a frenzy all weekend about how useless I was and be sure I was about to lose my job. This blog really helped though to accept that I made a mistake. I certainly learned from it to triple check delivery instructions. I apologized to my boss who said “these things happen”. And by trying to embrace the failure and learn from it I’m finding I’m actually able to move on rather than being overwhelmed with shame. Thanks for sharing this technique. It really helped!