We could certainly benefit from redefining our interpretation of what failure means to us.
It would seem to me, society has pigeon-holed the meaning to include getting an undesired result – or at least coming up short from receiving the outcome we were hoping for.
Maybe this is the problem. Anytime we’re locked into a specific and desired result, we miss out on other opportunities because we’re only looking for the predetermined product.
Have we learned something of value? Then how can that be a failure? We know something that we didn’t know before. Just because you didn’t get the exact result you were hoping for doesn’t mean we have ‘failed.’
After all, when 3M’s research and development was hoping to develop a permanent glue it stumbled upon what has now become Post It’s. That’s seem to work out for them. Give me some of that failure!