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Recently I was listening to a very successful person talking about failure and making mistakes. He suggested that people take this attitude: "I'm not a failure, I'm a learner."
This person had tried new things and failed. He'd tried some things and succeeded. His perspective was this: keep trying new things, even if you're scared. You will NOT fail, because even if things don't go your way, you've still learned something new. There's immeasurable value in that.
His statement really resonated with me. As a matter of fact, I'm about to do a whole lot of learning. I'm participating in NaNoWriMo again this year (my sixth!), but I'm trying something completely new. I'm using my beloved characters from my novel The Boy Who Loved Fire. Not a sequel, but more like a companion book. Plus I'm writing in dueling points of view. I've never done that before. Oh, and this will be more like a thriller. So yes, there will be plenty of failure...er...learning...going on.
I'm also studying ideas about releasing books as serials, podiobooks, and all kinds of fun stuff. One thing I've learned about this publishing business, especially indie publishing, is there are so many cool things to try.
What if something doesn't work out? I'll learn from it and move on to the next thing. And I won't consider it a failure...I'll consider it a learning experience.
Friends, what's your take on failure? Do you consider it a bad thing, or do you find value when things don't go the way you'd imagined? Are you afraid to try new things because of the fear of failure? Please share!