The key to success is failure. It sounds weird and like I’m going at things backwards, but this is one thing I have learned that holds true through everything.
I was reading Shae’s post about her epiphany and I was struck by how similar her thought processes were to mine. It’s easier to pretend that you don’t care about your blog, than to put it all out there and run the risk of failing. After all, failure is something that we hate and something to be avoided.
But is it really?
Every time I have done something, on this blog or in real life, that has failed, I’ve learned something. Sometimes it’s small things like how fast to whisk in oil so that my mayonnaise doesn’t split. Sometimes it’s when to keep my mouth shut to prevent my family hating me for twelve months because of something I wrote. Every step forward I make has been inspired by a string of failures.
This blog is no different and in fact it is the thing I fail at the most. I’ve never expected myself to be the perfect mother, or the perfect homemaker, but I did expect myself to be the perfect blogger. To be able to comment back every time, to read everyone and to write beautiful words that will resonate with everyone, every single time.
Blogging doesn’t work like that. Life doesn’t work like that.
My blog is becoming more successful. Showcase Tasmania is doing well, my subscriber numbers are slowly climbing and my traffic is sitting at a level I am comfortable with.
To get here, I’ve had to fail numerous times. For every five pitches I send, four businesses ignore me. For every contact I make and click with, there is someone who thinks I’m an idiot. For every blog post that does well on traffic, there are two that don’t.
Funnily enough, I’ve found that it is the small failures that I learn the most from. Working out what I did wrong and how to not do it again, I learn what I should have done instead. Sure, it’s trial and error a lot of the time, but that is life, isn’t it?
Failure is scary. No one wants to fail. We all want to be successful, all of the time.
However, I’m not sure that you can have success, if you didn’t build it on the back of failure.
And the only thing I can see that all successful people have in common is: They refused to give up and stop trying.
Comments
31 responses to “The key to success is failure”
I totally agree with you. Sometimes it sucks to royally mess up, but you grow and learn…
Yep, you do. And you learn better from your own mistake than anything else!
Yep, it’s like the old saying “Those who fail to learn from history are bound to continue making the same mistakes”.
You’re learning, you’re getting something from those errors so celebrate them as learning curves and don’t beat yourself up – we all make mistakes in blogging cos it’s a personal thing and no one person is the same as another 🙂
It’s a very good saying. And yes, personal blogging, there is no “recipe” for success, or magic way to get popular.
Im glad Im not the only one who worries about failing.. I know its part of life but I like to be good at things I like and I am way too tough on myself..Its good to learn that life is about up and downs not always about going up…
No, trust me, every email I send, every phone call I make, I’m worried about it not working out. But even when it doesn’t, it’s okay. I mean, someone telling me no isn’t going to kill me and a project not working out just means I need a new direction.
Or something like that.
I worry about failing often but I get really tired of people telling me how I should be doing it differently so that I can be a success.
More and more I think what matters is that I stay true to myself.
Everyone has an opinion about how to do it right (even me), but it’s personal blogging. We’re all different and we all have things that work and don’t work. I think that going with your gut instinct is going to be the best thing, every time.
I hate the feeling of being a failure at something and unfortunately I also know it too well! I am a new blogger and I must admit I am wondering whether its worth the effort or not. But alas I will keep trying! Thanks for the honesty 🙂
I hate it too. I’m a perfectionist to the core and every thing that goes wrong feels like a personal affront. But as long as I keep learning, I figure I’m doing okay.
And really, my blog is over four years now, so it’s a long slow road.
Absolutely.
I love reading those tales of some of our more ‘successful’ role models/heroes to find that their success followed so many rejections and failings.
It’s inspiring. What made them successful was, in fact, perseverance.
Fail on!
🙂
Exactly and it does make me feel better about how long it takes for things to start to come together. The road to success is paved with tears and perseverance.
Many of life’s failures are people who did not realise how close they were to success when they gave up”.
– Thomas A. Edison
… “Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time”.
– Thomas A. Edison
“Nearly every man who develops an idea works it up to the point where it looks impossible, and then he gets discouraged. That’s not the place to become discouraged”.
– Thomas A. Edison
Sorry for all these quotes – but I live my life by these mantra’s. Every day I give myself pep talks whether it’s about my blog, or life in general.
I firmly believe that we are our own harshest critics and the minute we cut ourselves some slack for “failing” is the minute we stop being afraid to fail and just embrace it as growth.
Great post.
I like those quotes, a lot. And I bet that people thought Edison was slightly weird too.
Wonderful.
I think I hit my worst single moment about a month ago. Yes, I’ve skimmed along and gotten by for awahile, but I had to hit that point to bounce back.
And I really hope that you’re bouncing back okay. xx
Oh, good one, V! So encouraging for those of us who occasionally (or even regularly) wallow in neurotic ponderings about our blogging. Or anything for that matter.
Glad you found it encouraging. I am finding myself increasingly neurotic about blogging and blog related things (I want to be the BEST! and I want success to be MAGIC!) and so I need to keep reminding myself that this isn’t a linear thing.
Its funny how the online endeavours go on a pedestool – for me its the same with my parenting. I accept mistakes professionally, with my friendships, with my craft endeavours, but I am so hard on the mistakes I make in parenting and I think that sometimes makes things worse.
I think having the kids I have, I’ve had to learn that nothing I ever do is going to be perfect and let it go. But blogging, that is something I can control (to a point) and so I hold onto it, more tightly than I should.
Here’s another quote for you.
“If you always do what you’ve always done,
You’ll always get what you’ve always got.”
I don’t remember the author, but the meaning is clear.
Mistakes are our learning curves.
I like that quote, I think I’ve heard it before and liked it then too.
Without mistakes, we would learn nothing.
Such a BRILLIANT post – loved every single word! x
Thank you 🙂
Love, love, love!
I got so much out of this xoxo
Oh good. Your post sparked this one, so thank you!
If failing to blog at all (apart from a few crappy photographs) then I am learning an awful lot at the moment. I care not a jot about the statistical side of it all not really understanding them in truth, I don’t do it to earn anything even though I have little, & I care little if the entire internet dislikes me afterall they are very unlikely to meet me. So all in all I am very grateful for this post, because I agree entirely – the key to success is failure. At least in my capacity as a blogger or not as the case may be! I am currently very succesful which has boosted me ego enormously!
xoxox
I loved your photos, so don’t call them crappy. The rocks and waves made me happy.
Great post, V. We never learn without failing and never find what it is we were destined to do without first trying a bit of everything. It’s always the thing you least expect that ends up being a success! 🙂
Exactly! And while I dislike failing at things, sometimes it makes the end result even sweeter.
The people who never fail at anything are either lying, or they never learn!
Our failures are our biggest learning points, that’s a fact. It’s better to embrace that side of them than try to ignore them completely.