Failing Does Not Equal Failure

The importance of persevering and doing the work even when it seems too hard to do.

When I decided to start this blog I did so with the intention of becoming a “full-time” writer. By that, I don’t mean quitting my day job and depending on writing to pay the bills (although I wouldn’t complain about that). Instead, I mean that I wanted to write on a regular basis and over time grow a steady readership.

I have to say that so far this has proven to be more challenging than I had hoped.

One of the biggest challenges that anyone can face when it comes to accomplishing a goal is simply setting aside the time each day to work on that goal, especially when you already have a full schedule. It sounds like it should be such an easy thing to do, but it’s amazing just how difficult it really can be. In my case, I told myself that I would either get up early each morning to write or I would do some writing each night after the kids have gone to bed. What I have discovered though is that it’s a bit more difficult than I had expected. I am by nature an early riser, but even that hasn’t always helped me with being able to sit down at my laptop and start typing out a post of decent quality. Most mornings I find myself waiting on the caffeine from my 2+ cups of coffee to jumpstart my brain so that I can become a functioning human being that day.

Trying to write at night has proven challenging because, generally speaking, us morning people don’t do well with late night. There’s been several nights where I’ve finally gotten to sit down and write and, before I know it, I’m nodding off while staring at a blank document. I fight sleep with all my might, but I finally end up giving in and, as a mentor of mine liked to say, I allow the arms of Morpheus to embrace me.

If you research what great writers throughout history have done in regard to this dilemma you will find a common thread throughout their responses. While each of them may have different blocks of time they set aside to write as well as different rituals or activities they go through to get ready to write, there is one thing that holds true: the only way to write is to write.

That might sound like an obvious statement, but the idea behind it is 100% true. It’s similar to the old axiom attributed to Thomas Edison of “Success is 10% inspiration and 90% perspiration.”

No matter what it is you’re aspiring to, the only way to do the thing is to do the thing. This could mean a lot of time spent trying to do that thing and not feeling like you’re getting anywhere. For writers, it could mean a lot of time spent staring at that blank document. It could mean a lot of time spent trying and trying only for things to not work out the way you want them to.

It could mean feeling like a failure.

But here’s the thing about failure. Going back to Thomas Edison, there’s another quote from him that is especially relevant to this. Edison is known as the inventor of the light bulb, but he did not achieve that feat on his first try. It took try after try after try before he finally created that first model of the light bulb that worked the way it was supposed to.

There’s a story that says that Edison was once asked by a reporter “Mr. Edison you’ve now tried 5,000 experiments to invent your electric light bulb. Every one of them has failed. Mr. Edison, how does it feel to fail at something 5,000 times?” Edison responded to this by saying “Sir, I have not failed 5,000 times. Rather I have successfully discovered 5,000 ways which do not work.”

What is remarkable about this is that Edison did not see his many, many failures as a reason to give up. Rather, he saw them as steppingstones that were bringing him closer and closer to his goal. Each failed attempt was bringing him a little bit closer to the success that he was striving for. That is a fantastic attitude to have, and one that we would do well to emulate.

Just because things may not work out exactly right on the first try doesn’t mean we shouldn’t give it a second try, or a third, or fourth, or however many is needed. Just because we sit down to write (or whatever it may be) and nothing comes to mind doesn’t mean that we should give up right then. Sometimes what is needed is to just write. It may be awful. It may not make one bit of sense. It may read like the worst, most incomprehensible thing a human being has ever put into written form, but it’s the process of slogging through those not so good moments, those “wasted” pages, that eventually bring you to the good ones.

It’s indeed possible that inspiration may strike us and we suddenly have the perfect idea that comes together wonderfully without a hitch. What is far more likely though is that we have to do the work of refining an idea, sometimes over and over again, until it eventually becomes what we envisioned it could be. We can’t be afraid of the work and we can’t be afraid of failure.

Edison achieved what he did because failure did not slow him down. Imagine what can happen if you don’t let it stop you either.