A*LIGHT THE LIGHT UP : A*LIGHT LIGHT UP~ Friends with Failure...The Other F Word by Alice Fulks

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F R I E N D S W I T H F A I L U R E

~The Other F Word~

This Week's Light Up is all about Making Friends with Failure.

Yes, failure that dreaded F word. Failure is a part of life, a great motivator, and a teacher. It is not failure itself that keeps us in bondage but rather the fear of failure. The fear is what leaves us feeling stuck and frozen. In my life this fear of failure has stopped me in my tracks and left me thinking: What if I suck? What if I bomb? What if I fail?

Fast Company, (a magazine focused on technology, ethical economics, and leadership) recently published an article about Google X. Google X's work involves focusing research and development on what the company calls moonshots: ideas like Google glass, high altitude wifi balloons, driveless cars and more. At Google X they know these moonshots have very little chance of succeeding, but if they do succeed, these innovations have the capacity to change the world. At Google X they champion failure and believe if creators can be encouraged to fail, they in turn will unencombered and genius will flourish. At Google X they not only encourage failure, they pride themselves on it.

I love this philosophy because when we become friends with failure, then we are no longer unconsciously controlled by the voice that says: Oh no don't do that, you might look stupid. At Google X they say: Go for it, please try and look stupid.

Lincoln failed in business, went bankrupt, and ran for a multitiude of political positions and lost different nine times. Edison went through 10,000 prototypes before creating the first commerically viable lightbulb.

The failure is not what matters- it is our relationship to it that counts. If we can see it not as something to be afraid of, but instead as acceptable and even as a demarcation of progress- we are then free to create.

What happens when we make friends with failure and say: you know what, it's okay if you fail, if you suck- it's alright. Then we're released from the tyranny of being good or being bad and we can get on with the business of being a contribution.

In my life there have been times where I have straight up bombed.

I'm sure some of you reading this have done the same. Failure needs, more than anything, our love and compassion. It needs us to champion and applaud it and say: Go for it, I dare you darling, fail big.

What if you could fail and it would be 100% okay then- what then- would you do?