There’s a motivational question people ask: What would you attempt if you knew you could not fail? It’s a good question for getting over the hurdle of fear of failure.
For me, it can kick me into action. Once I’m in action, though, my immediate instinct is to do what makes the most sense to reach the goal.
But it seems to me that it isn’t failure we’re afraid of, it’s uncertainty. So I tried asking, “What would I do if I had to do something, but knew I would fail anyway?” (Eliminate the uncertainty, but make it a guarantee of failure rather than a guarantee of success.)
Much to my surprise, my approach became a game. It freed my thinking in a way that the other question did not, and I began coming up with very “out-of-the-box” ideas.
(This reminds me of the essay The Wisdom of No Escape, by Buddhist nun Pema Chodron.)
What’s your experience? Does the question “What would you do if you knew you would fail?” do anything for you?
18 responses so far ↓
1 Pewari // Apr 10, 2008 at 2:47 pm
Hmm… for me the journey is as important as the destination. So I’d want to know “would I enjoy the process even if I didn’t get to finish the project?” (effectively “failing”) “would I learn something new?”.
I really can’t remember the last thing I did where the end result mattered more than the journey though, even with housework I have an attitude of “it’s better than it was” than “this is now spotless”.
2 Candis // Apr 10, 2008 at 2:57 pm
If I knew, no matter what I did or how I did it, that I would fail at whatever it was that I was trying to accomplish, I’d try to take as many people down with me as possible.
No, I’m kidding. Actually, I’d try to have the most fun and learn the most along the way as I could.
There are worse things in the world than failing, and one of them is not learning from your mistakes.
3 Diana LeRoi-Schmidt // Apr 10, 2008 at 3:03 pm
For me, if I knew I was going to fail, initially I’d feel down, but then I’d feel a sense of relief, the outcome is already determined.
Which usually either leads me to have less stress, or kick me into high gear and show who ever that, see if you didn’t predetermine my failure you could have gotten something good.
I was one of those children who when told to read the book, I didn’t, but tell me not too and I’d finish it that night.
4 Mignon // Apr 10, 2008 at 3:09 pm
I know what I wouldn’t try: skydiving! (Sorry, I couldn’t resist.)
5 Tom // Apr 10, 2008 at 3:22 pm
I feel that Candis has nailed it. If I knew I was going to fail, I would ask myself, what can I learn from this?
6 Erin B // Apr 10, 2008 at 3:39 pm
I think it depends on how attached you are to the task or its success.
If I know I’ll fail at something I desperately want to succeed at, it can depress me. Why bother trying? Why fight it? It can be a noose around my neck.
If it’s something I didn’t want to do in the first place, I might be angry and resentful about having to waste my valuable time for no results. Another barrier to getting things done.
Finally, if it’s something I’m not emotionally invested in, it can be freeing. I can detach even more and just get the thing done and over with — the sooner, the better.
I think it comes down to how we manage expectations and how invested we are in the outcome of the thing.
7 Maria // Apr 10, 2008 at 3:41 pm
I would definitely do it for the fun or [ if I'm possessed by the notion of being professional] the experience.
There’s as much to be learned from failure as success. Sometimes I think that failure is essential to success. I’m not trying to get all meta-cognitive or anything, just that sometimes knowing that the only thing that can happen is failure (as opposed to the world blowing up), then it’s kind of freeing to pursue the goal anyway.
8 Bonnie Crowder // Apr 10, 2008 at 3:43 pm
Well, we do know that we will fail. We will die. That’s pretty much the biggest failure of all. So everyday we go on plodding through knowing that death is looming ahead. The only people who don’t continue on this path are the smart ones who think, “Well, I’ll fail anyway so I’ll just not try.” That would be suicide. Literally.
So it doesn’t seem a big jump - actually it is a much smaller jump - to just consider failing an activity when you know you will fail in the big game.
bon
9 Jamie // Apr 10, 2008 at 3:51 pm
This question immediately made me feel lighter, start smiling and start getting playful. I love the new perspective. Thanks!
10 Jamie // Apr 10, 2008 at 3:54 pm
Oh, and this question just reminded me of one time in phys ed in junior high. Weirdly I was asked to captain one of the volleyball teams for class. I chose every single non-sporto girl. We were up against some members of the school team. We absolutely knew we were going to lose and we had the best time EVER in gym class. I think half the fun was seeing the frustration level raise on the other team that no matter what happened we were laughing and having a good time!
11 Ruthmarie Hicks // Apr 10, 2008 at 9:07 pm
Yes and no….People are dropping like flies around here and some of them are EXCELLENT at what they have been doing.
Success (according to my grandfather - who was president of a VERY successful cigar company) was 70% very hard work but you needed a big dose of luck as well - he gave it about 30%. He was a realist in the sense that without a hefty dose of good fortune, most businesses will fail. He felt that might depress people, but he also felt that it was important for those on top to realize that it wasn’t “all them” - an attitude he considered arrogant and short-sighted.
12 Ruthmarie Hicks // Apr 10, 2008 at 9:09 pm
Sorry, I guess what I am saying is that circumstances MUST be somewhat favorable and although you can make some of your own luck there is an element of fate that you can try to mitigate, but you can’t ignore.
13 Steve Mills // Apr 11, 2008 at 4:09 am
Whenever I see a task doomed to failure I ask “How do you leap a gorge?”. That question of course targetting those who like to ask “How do you eat an elephant?”. Of course, the answer to the first is not “One bite at a time”.
If a man can leap 8ft and you ask him to leap 20ft then he will think you’re an idiot and won’t even try. However if you ask him to leap 10ft then he’ll likely make the effort.
So to my answer: I love lateral thinking and if I’m brainstorming then I’d say “Let’s all imagine that we can actually leap 20ft - how do we get it done?”. On the other hand, if I’m assigning a task then it needs to be realistic, measurable and achievable.
Kind Regards
Steve
14 Laurent Duperval // Apr 11, 2008 at 9:29 am
That’s an interesting twist on things. So I’m stuck, and I *must* do it, right?
Well, strategically, I would figure out WIIFM. If I have to do it and fail, there has to be some sort of return. If there is no return, I will probably look for the easiest way out.
However, if there is a return on my investment (of time or money) I would make sure I get the most out of it, take my lessons and apply them the next time. Especially if it means that the next time, I won’t fail!
Nice twist Stever,
L
15 Rebecca D // Apr 11, 2008 at 11:26 am
I would do something that would make people come together and be happy and not neccessarily make money.
I would start a company because I know I would learn a ton along the way.
16 Samantha // Apr 11, 2008 at 12:37 pm
I think I’ve learned that lesson a lot in my life. I’ve taken risks when others thought I really shouldn’t.
I guess if I knew I was going to fail, I’d probably try moving to another state or another city; so that I knew I always had home to come back to.
17 Wendy // Apr 11, 2008 at 10:08 pm
Depending on what the thing is that I’d be failing at (got any examples of what you mean?)… I guess I’d either:
a) want to get it over and done with quickly and move on; or
b) have fun and take a risk! Like others have said, it would be freeing - you could do the project the way YOU want to do it, say what you want to say, and not worry what others think. Because you’ve got nothing to lose!
It reminds me of that scene in Groundhog Day, where Bill Murray is in a car with two men, and he says to them something like “What would you do if there was no tomorrow?”. Their response - “We could do whatever we wanted!”
18 John Mayson // Apr 16, 2008 at 12:49 pm
I think it would depend on the consequences of failure. If I’m about to sky dive and I know I will fail, I probably would not get on the plane. However, I often encounter situations where I know I will fail. I had a recent situation. Here it is.
First off, my employer is publicity shy and I’m forbidden from discussing our customers, so I’m going to be vague with the specifics, but you’ll still get my point.
We build widgets for Acme. It’s my job to design and maintain the tests for the widgets. Acme pays for any test equipment we buy. A manager here wanted a dozen more widget testers. We all knew Acme would shoot it down, but we needed an email from them saying they were going to shoot it down so as to trigger higher ups into action. In short I had to spend about half a day requesting and reviewing quotes and writing justifications knowing full well I’d get a big fat “No”.
I used the opportunity to train another engineer in this task. I let him go through all of the motions and now he knows how to request quotes and justify purchases to Acme. Since the answer was going to be “No” I wasn’t worried too much about “quality control” with his numbers, so it was the perfect training opportunity.
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