Musk is a billionaire industrialist and brash public figure who is famous for his resounding success in multiple industries.
He isnt the only successful magnate or icon to occasionally wallow in the pits of failure.
Thomas Edison is renowned for acknowledginghis close relationship with failure; for years, J.D.
Failure stalks us all, no matter how many triumphs we relish over the course of a lifetime.
But failure can be instructive.
But in life, things are rarely quite so cut and dried.
Failure isnt a dead thing, he tells Lifehacker.
Its a living thing, and you’re able to pull energy from it.
But the longer you wait to think about it, the more calcified it gets.
A mindful approach is key to recognizing how missteps can help you in the near and longterm.
He says:
Recognizing success within failure is best done immediately after youve recognized whats happening as failure.
Or maybe even during.
Not everyone has the luxury of such accommodating workplaces and congenial, understanding bosses and colleagues.
Sometimes the factors that led to your failure actually dont have much to do with you at all.
You just got the short end of the stick, Abrams says.
Labeling an unsuccessful venture a failure is too reductive to have much instructive value.
Of course, thats not what happens.
It doesnt always go up and sometimes it goes to the side and loops over itself.
Maybe you tried a new career for a few years, maybe you were unemployed for a time.
And I think thats a helpful context for assessing failure.
Rather than dwelling on the drastic consequences of a perceived failure, think of setbacks as instructive mistakes instead.
Mistakes are normal and excusable, and they happen with regularity.
With that frame of mind, finding success within your purported failures wont be hard at all.
