The Power of Failure

I have been bad about keeping this up-to-date, and I apologize for that. Rather it is videos of myself speaking, sharing links (as I will be today), or writing my own articles, I will do a better job for you. Since I failed at this, I thought it would be good to share an article about the Power of Failure, and ironically it appeared today in my Memories on Facebook that I shared this same article a few years ago.

  http://growingleaders.com/blog/failure-can-kids-best-friend/

First, this article comes from Tim Elmore.  Tim Elmore is one of my mentors.  He writes a lot about how to train up leaders and how to be a better leader and parent.  Tim is a Christian man that runs his own non-profit.  I have personally heard Tim speak many times in the past and lucky enough that all the teachers get to hear him this October during our Professional Development days. Mrs. Konkel uses Tim's books,  "Habitudes" for development building in the middle school.

Moving on to the article itself.  Tim challenges to let our kids take risks and even fail now so that they may not fail later.  He uses the illustration that letting a child ride their bike around a busy street as a child, will help them to learn and respect the road and cars so when they are behind the wheel they understand better.  He goes on to share the story of Bill Gates and how he failed at school and eventually dropped out of College.

In conclusion, to make it personal, as an athlete, I often learn more about myself and the sport when I fail or lose.  Two of my favorite wrestlers (not WWE, but actual wrestling) are Dan Gable and Cael Sanderson.  Although generations divide these two, there are very similar in their dominance in the sport.  They both even went to the same University, Iowa State.  Dan Gable since an early age was a successful wrestler, in fact, heading into his last match of his college career he was undefeated, never lost.  He failed to win his last College match.  Did that deter him, of course, he was upset, but he didn't let it stop him.  He went on to the Olympic games in Munich winning Gold while not giving up a single point.  Something that is remarkable.  Cael found a little more success than Dan in his wrestling days as he was undefeated including every college match.  When it came to international matches, he wasn't as successful and failed to make the Olympic team in 2000.  He didn't let that stop him as he went on to win the Gold in 2004 in Athens.  Both Dan and Cael moved onto coaching and both have multi-NCAA championships as a coach.

Don't be afraid to let your child fail a little.  When they do, talk about it and talk about why and how they could be better prepared for the next time they have a similar task. May God bless your day!