In particular: ” “Failure” is the hip new word. People say, “you have to fail to succeed.” This is not true. Failure is the fastest way to becoming a failure. Instead, view everything as an experiment. Every experiment has problems. As Peter Thiel says, “Get good at solving hard problems”.”

The thought ties in with the concept of perception being the root of happiness more than anything else. Failure is a harsh word and concept. You can see it’s a effect when you study children who have been told (through grades or teachers or parents) that they have failed. It doesn’t make them try harder but instead compels them to give up. Take that same child and work with them on problem-solving, take away punitive grades, show them error and a path towards solutions and you end up more often than not, with a child who keeps trying – a child who feels pride instead downtrodden.

In all successful accomplishments throughout history, thousands of mistakes were made before Eureka!! But they weren’t failures. They were instead an attempt that didn’t work. Next.

I appreciate the stories and message in this article James.

Best,
Deborah