Failure Makes You Vulnerable: Then You Should Talk About It

Sometimes the most difficult part of failure is having to talk about it. People don’t want to feel vulnerable, it opens them up and if they hold influential positions, they may look ridiculous. Leaders want to minimize their failures because they prefer to seem harmless and keep troubles and problems at distance. However, in order to be a great leader, it is vital to be able to discuss failures, talk about their weakness and weak points, overcome vulnerability, and show their human side. Moreover, this is what leaders should do in a well-documented way to create a learning opportunity for others that resembles a paved way for success.

“I Learned About Flying From That” is a series of volumes from Flying Magazine Editor that consists of a compilation of short stories from pilots that are easy to digest and quickly help grasp a life-saving lesson when faced with flying problems. Those volumes are based on the popular Flying Magazine column and the disaster-adverting techniques that are told pilot-to-pilot and transform mistakes and failures into pearls and tips that are valuable for aviation enthusiasts, wanna-be pilots, and flying students. Every story highlights what happens when things go wrong in the air and details how to survive.

As Optometrists, practice managers, or owners we are responsible for the success of the practice. Whether it is failure to create value, failure to identify and service a niche market, or failure to satisfy your audience with good experiences, you only learn when you start talking about your mistakes and failures in front of the people who work with you. Winston Churchill is frequently quoted as “Success is not final; failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” Failure happens to everyone, but not everyone has the courage to continue. In order to continue, you should be willing to learn from your failure. Being able to show the willingness to learn from your failure helps you connect with your team. Being able to embrace the discomfort of failure and speak up helps others value your experience and accept the wisdom you are trying to share. This way you will tolerate failure from others as well and you become focused on the lesson they will share with you in order to become wiser in front of tough to handle failures. From there, the sky is the limit!