Today, I want to challenge you to reflect — really reflect — on how you review your own performance. After each call, day, week, month, or quarter… do you have a process?
Every top performer in every industry has one thing in common: they fail. Then they fail again. And again.
But most of us still attach negativity to that word: fail.
Let’s flip that.
F.A.I.L. = First Attempt In Learning.
Things go wrong. Mistakes are inevitable. But the real difference is in how you respond.
Think about it — we were all once babies. We couldn’t sit up, talk, or walk. And no one expects a toddler to get it right the first time. Falls happen (and have to happen) before a toddler actually toddles!
Sure, parents can be in a rush to hit milestones. They’re competitive creatures — and trust me, I hated that part of parenthood…. other mums! They had a always have a knack of making you feel inadequate:
“Mine walked at four months!” 🙄
“Mine was talking at two months!” 🙄
(As if!)
Anyway — I digress. But let me ask you this:
Did you ever once doubt that your child — or you — would eventually walk, talk, and grow into an adult?
I’ve yet to see a town full of middle-aged people crawling around in nappies — Basildon aside (sorry Basildon, but who doesn’t love a good Essex joke?).
The point is this: those early falls were critical. Each one taught us something new.
Literally then — and metaphorically now.
We need to carry that mindset into everything we do.
Fail = Learn. And if you fail enough times, success becomes inevitable.
Look at Alan Sugar, Duncan Bannatyne, Peter Jones, Richard Branson, Elon Musk… They all failed — often spectacularly — before they succeeded. James Dyson created 5,126 failed prototypes before building the one (number 5,127!) that became the bestselling vacuum cleaner of all time.
He once said:
“You never learn from success, but you do learn from failure.”
But here’s the catch: you only learn if you take time to reflect.
So, ask yourself:
What did I do well today? What could I have done better? What else could I have done to be more productive?
Start asking those questions — daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, yearly.
Self-review is vital for growth.
So I’ll ask you again:
What would you do today if you knew you couldn’t fail?
Don’t wait. Go do it.
Realign your thinking — because failure isn’t the opposite of success.
It’s the path to it.
Unmuted: By Heidi Weir 