Failure....a ladder to Success?

I was sorting magazines into a "keep" pile and a very large "recycle" pile. I must have been inspired to do so. I ran across a couple things I meant to keep and I came across a little gem of an article by Jason Wright. He writes about all of the jobs he has had, which he considered failures, before being the writer he is today. His jobs went from working at Mr. Donut in high school to various jobs like modeling for a clothing catalogue, B-Horror movie actor, Singing telegram deliverer, various salesman jobs, founder of a few companies, etc. etc. He sums up with this:

"Do I regret these jobs: No. I believe the success I have today is a result of these failures. Each failure taught me to identify a new weakness and massage it into a strength. I'm tired of conventional wisdom telling us to forget our failures. My experience says embrace them. Next time you have a free moment, grab a pencil and a piece of paper; draw two columns. List your failures on one side and what you learned from them on the other. If you don't think you learned anything, think harder; no failure or test comes without a lesson. Trust me. If you'll identify your missteps instead of burying them under life's giant shag carpet, you'll find a free lesson every day. And each failure, whether miniscule or colossal, will refine you and make you wiser. Yes, I am a professional failure, but it's a badge I wear with honor."

(Jason Wright is a New York Times, Wall Street Journal and USA Today bestselling author. He is also a political commentator and the co-founder of PoliticalDerby.com, a popular website for political junkies.  http://www.jasonfwright.com/bio.html )

Wow. I think I will make  a list like he suggested with two columns. But, I think I differentiate between "failures" and "mistakes". As I tried to come up with "failures", I find it hard to label something as such. Maybe a failure is associated with a project or job, something that you embark on and have to abandon. A mistake is something that us humans just do all the time, and we have been taught that we need to learn from these things, try not to make the same mistake again. A failure is something that is a crash and burn.

fail·ure

[ fáylyər ]

1. lack of success: a lack of success in or at something
2. something less than that required: something that falls short of what is required or expected
3. somebody or something that fails: somebody or something that is unsuccessful

Synonyms: disappointment, letdown, catastrophe, bomb, fiasco, disaster, botch, miscarriage, flop

 

mis·take

[ mi stáyk ]

1. incorrect act or decision: an incorrect, unwise, or unfortunate act or decision caused by bad judgment or a lack of information or care
2. error: something in a piece of work that is incorrect, e.g. a misspelling or a misprint
3. misunderstanding: a misunderstanding of something

Synonyms: blunder, gaffe, faux pas, lapse, misstep, blooper, miscalculation, clanger, bloomer

 

 

 And as I try to make my list, I am realizing that I have a tendancy to try and forget failures. I can think of endless mistakes, but FAILURES? I am going to see what I can come up with. Let me know what you think.....about this idea of failure being the ladder to success and if you think there is a difference between failures and mistakes (don't tell me what you think about MY failures!).