“If there is one thing I can pass on from my humbling experiences in life, thus far, I will tell you this, the next time someone tells you “the absence of expectations is the absence of disappointment, do not listen. Have expectations. Keep them great. It’ll be a very bumpy ride. You’ll even get bruised, sometimes very badly. Sometimes, you’ll come to an abrupt halt or even fall off your ride. But you’ll grow. And if you do not grow, you do not live.”
― Pandora Poikilos
For those of you who’ve been listening to our podcast, “What Are You Failing At?,” you know that I believe failure goes hand in hand with learning, progress, and the development of moral character.
Nevertheless, failure has a bad name in our society. Many would-be/should-be artists and entrepreneurs avoid taking creative risks because they fear being embarrassed by failure. Others refuse to try new things because they haven’t forgiven themselves for their past failures. Some people are so intimidated by the word that they insist on telling us that there is no such thing as failure.
This is why I’m on a quest to document as many conversations as possible with educators, entrepreneurs, and entertainers who are willing to openly and honestly share the lessons they’re learning from their current or recent failures. My message to the world is simple:
Failure is real, but we can face it with a sense of courage and humor. Failure feels lonely and frightening, but we all experience it and we can all learn from each other’s experiences.
Casey Zeman, an entrepreneur and online branding consultant, agrees with my mission to celebrate the beauty and value of failure. So he decided to join me on the podcast this week to share a current failure of his own while offering a some insight into what he’s learning from his creative challenges. Right after we finished our episode, Casey remembered another failure he was eager to share so we recorded another short session giving you a double feature this week. To watch or listen to episode 10A, check out the video or audio clip below. The video and audio for episode 10B are right underneath the video and audio clips for episode 10A.
Don’t forget to follow Casey on Facebook and Twitter. While you’re at it, follow Praxis on Facebook and Twitter as well. Lastly, you can find me on Facebook and Twitter too.
Are you looking to learn more about the beauty and value of failure? If so, here’s a great post on Why We Need to Fail from the Tiny Buddha blog. If you’re still craving more after reading that, check out what 99U has to say on Why Success Begins with Failure.
We’ll be back next Monday with a new episode of “What Are You Failing At?” In the meantime, keep failing forward.
Cheers,
T.K. Coleman