Is Winston Churchill really right?

Winton Churchill once said failure is not fatal and success is not final. Can that be true?

Fatal failures – these two words go so well phonetically together. They make people’s heart sink and leave a bitter taste in the mouth.

It is one of the most feared events: fear of failure.

Usually, this kind of fear doesn’t make us run away. It doesn’t evoke the flight mechanism which rescued man in so many situations. Just think what you would do if a bull would show up 100 meters in front of you storming towards you. You’d probably run for safety.

But fear of failure usually makes us freeze and unable to move. It paralyses us. We still might function in general but the activity where we fear to fail, that’s where we do nothing. We stall.

So where do we get stopped out by this fear? This is individual and the list reads like speaking in public, dancing, working for yourself, asking someone out, internet marketing and share trading. What if I fail?

Actually, it is not failure – it is feedback how not to do it or whom not to ask.

The story goes that Edison invented 998 ways how not to make a light bulb and by the way the only reason why we can use those fantastic post-it notes is because the inventor failed to create a strong glue.

Seeing failure as feedback is freedom and reward at the same time, because we know that when we “fail” we really do something and utilize our theoretical knowledge to create real world results. I would be happy with both light bulb and post-it notes even if I would have to get feedback 998 times.