Learning from failure

"It's gonna be hard to convince kids
But honestly, losses taught me more than my wins did"

- Benny The Butcher

A win teaches you to do it again the same way.

If you've been successful for a long time, its very difficult to adapt when you suddenly start losing. To recapture success you need to be objective about why you are not successful anymore. Don't hide behind excuses, which is very easy to do.

"The first principle is that you must not fool yourself, and you are the easiest person to fool"

- Richard Feynman

If you're a business that's been successful for a long time then its even easier to fool yourself. Since there are many more people and many more incentives to do so. From Kodak to Blackberry to Blockbuster, examples in business are not hard to find.

A loss teaches you find another way.

LEGO nearly failed in the late 2000's after competition from video games. That failure compelled it to transform itself with a focus on its core products and partnerships.

Marvel transformed itself after going bankrupt in 1996. It was only because of that failure that it looked to partner with film studios.

Individually, failure if its accepted, can be similarly revealing and transformative. Steve Jobs would not have been able to lead Apple back from the brink without the lessons learned from his first tenure. Oprah Winfrey, Michael Jordan and JK Rowling all have similar stories of failure in their past that no doubt helped refine their talent.

Constant improvement, win or lose.

Find a way to maintain a constant improvement mindset whether you are winning or losing. If you continue to improve for long enough, you'll get pretty good.

"It doesn't matter how slowly you go as long as you don't stop"

- Confucius