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Genius idea: a failure wall

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Last week I stumbled upon a wonderful post on Harvard Business Review blogs (yes, I am a giant nerd) titled: Why I Hire People Who Fail.

In the post the author reminded readers of something we all know to be true – that failures teach us more than successes because we are forced to look back and figure out exactly what happened. He then explained how he created a wall for memorializing failures, and the lessons learned from them, in his office conference room.

It got me thinking.

As a parent really want to teach my kids to embrace failure as one of life’s greatest teachers. My oldest is a bit of a perfectionist, a trait that he probably inherited from me. I didn’t really grasp the potential of failure to teach until I was well into adulthood. I grew up sweeping my failures under the carpet with embarrassment and shame. I don’t want my children to waste precious learning opportunities doing what I did.

Plus I want them to understand the concept of imperfection to their toes – and embrace it wholeheartedly.

So I am thinking of creating a little failure wall of our own at home too. A place where dad, mom, and eventually the boys, can post our failures publicly and share the hard-earned wisdom gained from the experience. It’s a powerful visual reminder that success comes from picking yourself up after you fall and try, try, trying again.

{Brilliant #fail main image via: 1x.com/photos}

I’m curious what you think about this idea. Let me know if you would ever have the courage to do it at work…or at home.

Posted by Sarah on Dec 19, 2011 print article e-mail to a friend

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A L Washington

True failure comes when we chose NOT to learn from our mistakes and keep doing the same things over and over again. It’s also the definition of insanity! Opportunities for personal growth come in many forms. Embrace each one.
Goldwingsummers

My so-called “failures” have taught me what I don’t want to do and be. I think your idea of a failure wall as a teaching device for your kids is brilliant!
Ann Lee

Great take on the article. I am going to special wall at home as well. Although I am a strong motivator and troubleshooter, I am growing to realize the benefits gained when things don’t always follow the path set or the results anticipated. Thanks for your idea… its a great life tool!
JJ5

Whenever one of our kids are frustrated by a “failure”, it seems like another one will remind them of the quote by Thomas Edison:
“We now know a thousand ways not to build a light bulb.”
The three of them do have “perfectionist” tendencies, and as parents we work hard to remind them that if they do everything right the first time, they aren’t really learning. We do value the struggles, the second, third and twelth tries probably more than the instantaneous successes because we want to breed the ideas of resilience and effort.
Suzie

The typo in the headline is just a little too annoying.

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