“Success is never final; failure is never fatal.”
– Unattributed, so I’m claiming it
Resting on laurels or wallowing in despair are both tickets to icky places.
This week the DD has focused on planning, and the fact of the matter is, sometimes plans fail. For every big win, there might be several failed plans.
Failed plans, however, do not make us failures. Planning is about what we accomplish, sure, but it’s also about what we learn.
What worked / went well? Why did it work? What went wrong? Could we have anticipated it? Could we have avoided it? What surprises popped up? What caused them? What assumptions were correct and which assumptions were wrong? What will we do better next time, win or lose?
Malcom Gladwell, in his spectacular book, “Outliers,” suggests that 10,000 hours of practice is what it takes to become world-class at a given activity. (Click, buy, read…..it’s a great book…)
Planning is practice. Preparation. Rehearsal. Education.
Failure is part of the planning process. Unless we let it become a destination.
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