Members of my career mentoring site know that I believe that we all have our personal definition of success.
This article and video from my friends at Career HMO reinforces that point — they say that “success is subjective. I agree. Like beauty, success is in the eye of the beholder.
But in this post, I’d like to focus on another of the points in the article and video — Failing does not equal giving up.
I can guarantee you that as you go through life you will fail — more than once. The important thing is to use failure as an opportunity to learn and grow. One of my early mentors once told me that “you fail only if you learn nothing from the experience.”
The blog post on which I have received the most comments is called “50 Famous People Who Failed at Their First Attempt at Career Success.” Check it out. Most people who comment tell me that they find these stories to be inspirational. A few have suggested other names to add to the list. All of the people on this list have two things in common: they didn’t give up, and they learned from their mistakes.
Not giving up and learning from your failures are two keys to creating the life and career success you want and deserve. I have failed many times in my career. I did my best to learn from each of these failures. Here’s a personal story…
Many years ago I was approached by a recruiter who was working on filling a position with a large multi-national consulting company. I was a perfect fit for the job. They invited me in for an interview. I wanted this job. But I decided to play it cool in the interview. I purposely came across as laid back. I was trying to convey the idea that “we both know I’m a good fit for this job, so let’s discuss things as the professionals we are.”
I succeeded too well. A couple days later, the recruiter called me and said that the company was impressed with my credentials and the answers I gave to their questions, but they didn’t think I was passionate about the job. The irony here is that I was very passionate about the job, I just decided to not let that passion show. I failed. I didn’t get the job.
From this experience I learned that it’s important to let my true self show throw in all I do. I am an outgoing passionate person. I approach everything I do with a sense of excitement. I lost a job because I didn’t let my true self show through in an interview.
I may have lost that job, but I gained some great insight — it’s important to be myself and let the chips fall where they may. I know that I have lost a few consulting projects over the years because of my personal style. I also know that I have gained a lot more assignments because of my style.
I failed, and I learned. That’s what you need to do. no matter what you’re doing, give it your best shot. If things work out, great. If not, make sure you learn something from the experience. Put this knowledge to work as you move forward in your life and career.
Your career mentor,
Bud
PS: I write this blog to help people create the life and career success they want and deserve. Now I’m going one step further. I’ve created a membership site in which I’ve pulled together my best thoughts on success. And, as a reader of this blog, you can become a member for free. Just go to https://budbilanich.com/join to claim your free membership. You’ll be joining a vibrant and growing community of success minded professionals. I hope to see you there.
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