by Philip Lop

Created on: August 16, 2011   Last Updated: November 20, 2011

Businesses make significant investments in processes, systems and people with the intention of being as effective as possible. Vast sums of money are spent within the business world on consultants, who bring their learning and expertise to organizations, and help them understand how to be successful. By definition, all this money and effort is invested to avoid failure.

Failure is seen as a negative term. Society is programmed not to fail. A competitive edge is encouraged right from the very earliest years of schooling, and examinations and qualifications are all sought after on the basis that failing to achieve them is unacceptable. Failure doesn't feel good. It is stressful, traumatic and often very costly financially, and it is no surprise, therefore, that the business world spends so much time and effort trying to avoid failure.

Philosophers would argue that without failure there cannot be success. How does the world know what good looks like if there is no mediocre or poor? There is some truth in this kind of thinking. Few people value success higher than those that have experienced failure first hand, and it is here that the value and importance of failure can be truly appreciated.

Pain is used by the human body to acknowledge danger. It is one of the most rapid forms of learning, because if something is painful, it is unlikely that you will do it again. Failure is rather like an emotional form of pain, and in the business world serves exactly the same purpose. It is an immensely valuable tool for learning, because when it happens it forces everybody to focus on improvement in a way that no other incident can.

Failure forces an individual or an organization to reflect on what went wrong. The extent of the failure will largely dictate the extent of the investigation, but the learning that can be drawn from failure can be immense. Root cause analysis can identify issues that might otherwise never have been exposed. The inward focus can expose process inefficiency, wastefulness and lack of attention to detail that offers the business significant opportunity to improve.

Of course, in establishing the importance of failure, it is also vital to acknowledge the importance of acting upon it. It may sound like a business cliché, but failure should always be seen as an opportunity. It is an opportunity to learn, to improve, and to grow and while it might be the very definition of 'learning the hard way', it is certainly effective. Failing to act upon failure is almost certainly the greatest error that any business or individual can make. Whether that level of failure will offer the opportunity for recovery remains to be seen, but the chances are probably very slim.

Some of the most driven, successful business people have at one time or another failed. That failure gave them firsthand experience of the unpleasant, emotional pain of failure and catalyzed the subsequent actions and planning that led them to success. Indeed, many entrepreneurs believe that you cannot truly succeed until you have experienced failure. It can be character-defining, and will strengthen your resolve to ensure that it never happens again, in a way that will leave the competition standing.

Nobody would ever willingly choose to fail. Human programming is such that it is all but impossible. However, when failure occurs, shrewd business people understand that it is in fact an opportunity to excel. What happens next is entirely in their hands.

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