Practice failure

Summary

• Sara Blakely, who founded Spanx: her father would ask them 'what did you guys fail at this week?' If there was nothing, he would be disappointed.

Details

• Make a practise of failure

References

• 3-2-1 email James Clear Apr 5, 2024

Quotes

Entrepreneur Sara Blakely, the founder of Spanx, on failure:

"When my brother and I were growing up, my father would encourage us to fail. We'd sit around the dinner table and he'd ask, "What did you guys fail at this week?" If we had nothing to tell him, he'd be disappointed. The logic seems counterintuitive, but it worked beautifully.

He knew that many people become paralyzed by the fear of failure. They're constantly afraid of what others will think if they don't do a great job and, as a result, take no risks. My father wanted us to try everything and feel free to push the envelope. His attitude taught me to define failure as not trying something I want to do instead of not achieving the right outcome."

Related

• Failure is a positive sign that you are trying to stretch and do something beyond your current abilities
• The only failure is to avoid creating in the first place
• Benefit from failure
• Questions to confront fear of failure
• Thinking negatively about failure leads to less attempts to try to overcome obstacles
• Infants are not discouraged by failure