They love the learning because the failure hurts

Anyone who knows me, really knows me, knows that I’ve failed.

I’m not particularly afraid of it. I don’t like it, but I know it’s important.

Someone gave me this article last week. It’s got great research and good takeaways, but the thing I love most is the emphasis on failure.

Samuel Beckett had the right attitude: “Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try Again.

Fail again. Fail better.”

Failure is at the heart of learning, it’s just not at the centre of Education. But I don’t want to knock Education today. I want to encourage failure. What do kids who play Minecraft do it for? Because the there’s no one to tell them what to do. They learn by failure. And they love the learning because the failure hurts.

They love the learning because the failure hurts. Ouch.

I want to redefine success so that it more accurately describes what’s going on. I’m thinking about Richie McCaw. The All Black captain played through injury, endured unprecedented public scrutiny, and half of his team didn’t finish the tournament. But McCaw succeeded.

Actually, he triumphed. He had victory.What happens when we take away the failure? Is the reward gone?

I not sure how we do this, but I think that praising mediocrity is a bad idea. Lying is also questionable.

Identifying weakness and error sounds good. Pointing out mistakes too.

But only when invited.