Seek to Misconstrue + a
Failure: The Blog 
August 2018
- When This Executive Was Fired, He Took Charge
- Obeying The Speed Limit Has Never Been More Fun
- London Black Cabs Helped Uber Grow
- Bette Graham Created A Product To Fix Her Mistakes
- Flamin' Hot Cheetos Had An Interesting Start
July 2018
- Fear This Instead Of Failure
- Re-Releasing Songs Created Success
- A CEO's Purposeful Mistake
- The Tardy Student And The Unsolvable Problem
- Fixing Potholes Through Graffiti
June 2018
- A Surprising Mistake In The Oxford English Dictionary
- US Army Embraces Mistakes
- Blocking A Hymn
- Eddie Shore Was Truly A Tough Guy
- [Video] Elon Musk Didn't "Pivot" He Failed
May 2018
- 8 Examples of Mental Toughness Part 2
- Necessity Turned Accessory: Allen Iverson's Sleeve
- This Doctor Has Continued To Fail
- 8 Examples of Mental Toughness
- MIT Accidentally Creates New Smelting Process
April 2018
- Johnny Cash Quit Singing Lessons
- Cruise Control Came Out of Frustration
- Time Spent Gaming Pays Off In The Navy
- Rock Around The Clock Was a Commercial Failure
- Sigmund Freud Should Have Been Discouraged
March 2018
Failure to Communicate
Everyone has had the experience of being certain that another person has ignored their instructions. What’s the right way to bring success out of this obvious failure?
The temptation is to prove that you’re right. In this modern age, it’s likely your initial request was probably documented in an email or a voicemail. If someone discards a direct instruction and tries to ask you a question that you’ve already answered, who wouldn’t want to rake them over the coals with the truth?
Doing so, however, will likely be a disaster. Failure may be the secret to success, but piling failure on top of failure is probably a bad move. No one likes to be shown exactly how they were wrong.
Instead, a helpful approach may be attribute the problem to something other than the person you want to accuse. Maybe the voicemail message was garbled or lost. Maybe your email went to spam. Perhaps someone else inadvertently provided conflicting information at the same time, which clouded the facts.
It’s also possible that you weren’t totally crystal clear. After all, the person dispensing the instructions probably doesn’t need them. Isn’t the individual who gives directions most likely to inadvertently leave out those steps that seem most obvious?
If someone fails to follow instructions, don’t double the failure by jumping down their throat. Instead, give them the opportunity to gallantly recover. Success comes when we stop dwelling on mistakes and focus on where we can grow and achieve.
