438: The Case of the Missing Memo

I am home from Kenya and I had a great visit.  I invite you to visit my travel blog to read all about it.  In the meantime, I am still searching for the Memo that I posted last week, which mysteriously disappeared. In nine years of writing the Memo, that has never happened, so I guess I was due, so to speak.  That doesn't change anything, however, where Celebrate a Failure week is concerned.  It is still set for March 1-7. You can read about how to celebrate here, but in the meantime, let's see If I can't reproduce what was lost last week and overcome my failure to deliver.

FOLLOW MY LOGIC.

During one past Celebrate a Failure week, a woman told me, "Couldn't we make these Tolerate A Failure Weeks?  I'm learning to tolerate failure, but I'm not ready to celebrate it!"  My view on the matter, however, is that failure plays such a vital role in your life, purpose and personal development that you must value failure for the important part that it plays.

When I conduct leadership and purpose seminars, I usually lead people through this sequential argument where failure is concerned.  Perhaps you have heard me go through this:

1. First I ask, "Can failure be an important learning experience?"  Everyone usually answers, "yes."

2.  Then I ask, "Don't we often learn more from failure than we do from success?"  People again answer, "Usually, yes."

3.  I go on to ask, "Aren't we as leaders and followers of Jesus to be learning and growing at all times throughout our life?"  Once more, the answer that comes back is "Yes!"

4.  Then I conclude by asking, "Then shouldn't we be failing as often as possible?"  At that point, the room usually falls silent.

That reasoning is why I believe it's important not just to tolerate failure, but to celebrate it, which we will do all next week.  I have my list of my personal failures to study, and I want to milk them for all they are worth to prepare for my future successes. 

THE ONLY REAL FAILURE

In Marianne Williamson's book The Gift of Change, she wrote, "The only real failure is the failure to grow from what we go through."  (There''s another way you can celebrate - by posting your favorite quote about failure on this site as some have already done).  If what Williamson said is true, then we need to allow that truth to sink down to the core of our being.  Henry Ford said that failure isn't the end of the world; it's just a chance to begin more intelligently.  I agree; do you? If you do, then join me in celebrating failure and developing a mindset that failure is an important part of success.  

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THE SOPHIA FUND AND DEBORAH FOUNDATION:  I was able to distribute $3,000 from the Sophia Fund and 28 duffel bags of educational resources and books while in Kenya and came home ready to continue my efforts in those two initiatives.  You can read the impact we made at one orphanage here.  Once you read it, please donate to help us feed even more orphans while also helping to stimulate their intellectual development

I am asking that every Monday Memo reader contribute at least $5 this year.  You can give through my website or send a check to PurposeQuest, PO Box 91099, Pittsburgh, PA 15221. Just let me know if your contribution is to be used for food or books and I promise to use it for that purpose. Just $5 will help me feed an orphan for two weeks!  Do what you can and please do it today.

Comments

[Cleophas W. Chesoli]

Yeah, celebrating failure takes guts!! It is usually painful but fruitful and rewarding at the end of it all. I have just been going through with my wife some of the bold decisions we took in the past year and failed..we are still going through the consequences of some of the failure but we are learning to celebrate failure! Definitely, we have learned better ways of not how to do certain things!