HOW TO
SUCCEED
BY
FAILING
thought they would.
It would be possible to say that
the experiment failed. But if you knew
exactly how every experiment was going
to turn out, there would be no point in
actually doing any of them. Instead of
seeing it as a failure, you can think of it
as a learning opportunity.
When a project “fails,” it’s your
reaction that matters most. You can
give up, abandon that line of inquiry,
and move on to something completely
different. Or, you can think to yourself,
“Huh! Isn’t that interesting? I wonder
why it turned out that way.” Then start
analyzing the unexpected results, and
Lisa M. Balbes, Ph.D.,
Freelance technical writer and editor
“You’ve failed,” are words that no one wants to hear. From the
time you are small, you are taught to
strive for success. Often, your instinct is
to hide your failure, before anyone else
notices it. For example, how many times
have you tripped or fallen, and the first
thing you did was look around to see if
anyone noticed? If no one saw, it doesn’t
really count, right?
Just because something you tried
did not work out as expected, does that
make you (or it) a failure? Not neces-
sarily. If you hide your failure away and
never examine it, yes, it will remain
a failure. But is there anything to be
learned from your failures? Can you
use them to propel yourself to greater
success? This is not only possible, but
necessary if you are going to grow as a
professional.
Learning from Failure
Very often in science, someone runs an
experiment, and it just doesn’t work out
quite the way anyone thought it would.
Maybe the results weren’t what was
expected, maybe there was too much
background noise to see the data clearly,
or maybe the researcher was trying a
new technique for the first time and the
standards didn’t elute where the person
HOW TO
SUCCEED
BY
FAILING
Lisa M. Balbes, Ph.D.,
Freelance technical writer and editor
