Willingness to fail

[japanpimp]

I read this some place:
"Our willingness to fail gives us the ability and opportunity to succeed where others may fear to tread"

[0Spawn0]

Willingness to fail . . .

Who wants to fail?

[*jdm*]

i think its about being able to take risks

[Merciless 1]

I think it means that our curiosity that allows us to do things and fail at them also allows us to find out what is the right way to do something. That is what makes some people special in ways others cant comprehend...

[Kaminarii]

I don't think it's about them wanting to fail, more about them going out there believing that all is possible, even when attemping the impossible, were you may fail many times, before making it possible.

[Quantum Leap]

I read this some place:
"Our willingness to fail gives us the ability and opportunity to succeed where others may fear to tread"

Michael Jordan. I believe he was pertaining to his basketball career when he said that, but to take that in a general context ...

I don't think it's the willingness to fail per se, but more of a willingness to take risks and acknowledge the possibility of failure. A person "willing" to fail has already inclined himself more to failure than to success, as opposed to just recognizing the risk and striving for something higher/better in the process. A person doing the latter never rules out failure, but rather, uses it as a basis for a back-up plan. If ever he falls short of reaching Plan A, he considers this only as a temporary setback and not a failure, enabling him to proceed with Plan B, Plan C, and so on.

I agree with the rest of the quote, however. Failures aren't gems, but steppingstones to reach your goal. And each of these failures, when taken objectively, acts as a leverage for success. People who stop at the first roadblock and not look for an alternative (sometimes unconventional) route is limiting themselves to whatever amount of success/opportunities they can have.

[Rodri]

Is this about the traditional Japanese concept of the noble failure or more about expressing how we all learn more from our mistakes than our successes?

The first concept I have only a vague knowledge of (sorry) but the second is more familiar in western cultures.

[Woldere]

This thread looks willing to fail also

[PREDETOR]

as i under stand the guys that fail t.hey can do what normal guys cant do

[Rodri]

This thread looks willing to fail also

Not as much as you.

There is a tradition in Japanese literature of the noble failure or the nobility of failure. To the western mind it can be a difficult concept to grasp. If you are interested in learning a bit more about this Japanese tradition I would suggest reading this article as a starting point.

http://www.gotterdammerung.org/books...f-failure.html

To the western mind, winning can be everything and losers are to be ridiculed but if we are honest about it, quite often it is only when we fail and how we cope with that, that we really learn more about ourselves and what we need to change to succeed. Those who have never failed have never truly been tested to the extreme and those who choose to avoid risk and choose the easy path through life may never learn what they are truly capable of.

Many millionaires tell stories about how their first business failed and they lost everything. It was only through learning the lessons those failures had to teach them that they were able to go on to become the great successes that they eventually did. Risk takers are willing to admit the possibility of failure. Yet they will still continue to take risks and accept the losses when they occur because they know that when they do succeed, that success will be a result of all the accumulated attempts that they have made and will be so much sweeter.

If you cannot understand this kind of attitude then you are probably risk averse and have chosen to live a life of small risk/small reward. There is nothing wrong with that and indeed a large percentage of our populations choose to live this way. They are the backbone of our societies and without them our societies might fail to function.

But we need the risk takers to do what they do because when they succeed our whole society advances. They are the innovators and entrepreneurs that push the boundaries for all of us.