Chapter 1

Failure IS an Option

The most dangerous phrase in the [English] language is,“We’ve always done it this way.” –Grace Hopper

What is failure?

That seems like an easy question. Failure isscrewing up. It is making mistakes. It is stumbling where we intendto walk, falling down where we hoped to climb. Failure is themessage: “You’re doing it wrong.”Sometimes, failure can be gigantic. Think of the MitchellReport, which accused eighty-nine Major League Baseball playersof using performance-enhancing steroids. That’s not just oneslugger on one team breaking the rules; it’s a player in practically every club in the league.On the other hand, failures are often minuscule. If we cutourselves shaving, no one may ever know but us. Failures don’talways matter. You might get a bad grade on one assignment, but if you’re a good student otherwise it might have a negligible impacton your GPA.

Perhaps the most powerful aspect of the size of failures ishow they affect other people. When a little league outfielder fails tocatch an easy pop-fly, he may cost his team the game. Losing agame could throw off the whole season or ruin the chances tomake the playoffs. Hence the old proverb, “For Want of a Nail:”For want of a nail the shoe was lost.For want of a shoe the horse was lost.For want of a horse the rider was lost.For want of a rider the battle was lost.For want of a battle the kingdom was lost. And all for the want of a horseshoe nail. The transmission of failure does not always go up the chain. When the Mitchell Report soured baseball and brought so many great players under suspicion, failure was evident on a nationalscale. How many young sports fans lost their faith in their favoriteathletes? How many baseball cards and autographs were thrownaway in disgust? Sometimes, the most significant failures by nationalheroes trickle down to everyday people.

However, failure doesn’t always lead to more failure.

If you apply for a job but flub the interview, you will fail to get thespot. But you may also make room for another candidate toadvance their career. When one team loses a game or an army losesa battle, the opposing side must have been victorious. In the end,your failure may be offset by someone else’s success.Making the wrong decision may clear the way for someoneelse or it may also demonstrate what

not

to do. Many of the storiesthat are part of our popular culture are about failure and resolution.In the best-selling book

The Life of Washington

(1809), a story is toldabout a young George Washington who chopped down a cherry tree because he wanted to use his new hatchet. Even in the mid-1700s, people felt that random deforestation was unwarranted. Yetthe story continues that when confronted with the evidence,George Washington did the right thing, exclaiming, “I cannot tell a

lie.” The mistake of chopping down the tree led to an act of honesty and more importantly, created an invaluable lesson thatcontinues to inspire countless generations.Perhaps the most powerful aspect of failure is the interplay between failure and success. The story of George Washingtoncertainly has had a positive influence on our culture. Yet at the sametime, most historians agree that the author of

The Life of Washington

,Mason Weems, fabricated the entire tale! For nearly two hundredyears, students of American history have believed a lie about thefirst president of our nation. Surely creating and believing in untruestories is considered failure; especially for those of us gullibleenough to entrust our own moral guidance to such tall tales.However, does the lesson of the Washington story outweigh thefact that it is untrue? Is our failure forgiven when we discover we were wrong about some tidbit of American history and correctourselves? This is the great question about success and failure. Should we, as human beings, tally up our experiences in life as though our victories and defeats are marks on a scoreboard of our personal worth? If so, every time we accomplish something, we gain points.Every time we screw up, those points vanish. And while the work piles up, the chances to succeed or fail become more overwhelming.Should we even try to keep score? As humorist Bill Watterson oncenoted, “God put me on this earth to accomplish a certain numberof things. Right now I am so far behind that I will never die.”

There is an easy way to avoid failure: attempt nothing

. This is the route many of us pursue when we encounter achallenging project or difficult decision. Failure seems like such ablack mark on our record that we often try to escape the pangs of error by not taking risks. We sometimes avoid the possibility of screwing up by refusing to venture outside our safety zone. This strategy does work. If we don’t sign up for thatcommittee, we can’t be held responsible for any future mistakes. If we don’t apply for that premier university, we will not be rejected.