Two key points I want to mention this morning about learning to embrace the struggle; first, failure is inevitable for all of us and second, failure is part of the equation for success.
In my career I have been a sole owner or partner in eight companies. I have been involved in the start-up of over 2,500 micro businesses in Latin America. What I have found is that my initial “kick at the can” at any project I have been involved in has experienced “a degree of failure.”
Failure presented itself in a number of different ways. Some of my failures were due to lack of ability; when I first started off in business I didn’t have the skills to manage the number of staff that were under me. The answer to many of my challenges was to do most of the work myself and avoid the process of delegation. It outcome was burnout. It was painful.
I laugh now as I look back on some of my early failures. I remember the work it took to clean up the mess and the work that it took to make corrections in execution of my goals.
When we accept failure as part of the equation of success we learn to embrace the struggle. The alternative is to run from our failures, hide our failures, pretend they never happened, or insulate ourselves from being put in situations where failure may occur.
The difficulty in this type of thinking is that it creates the illusion that avoiding failure will insulate you from struggling.