• Home
  • The Book
  • The Author
  • Events
  • The Blog
  • Failures Within
  • Contact

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

  • Superman Couldn't Fly
  • This School Shares Failures
  • Jim Croce's Parents Hoped He Would Fail

[More archives...]

« Dustin Hoffman Talks Failing and Therapy
A Lesson From A Startup Failure »

Embrace Embarrassment To Find Success

January 13th, 2015 - by Alyssa Shea

Some of us find ourselves in more awkward situations than others. The embarrassment that can come along with that may feel like a total failure. But what if embarrassing yourself is the best way to succeed?

Try and conjure up the last time a major embarrassment happened to you. Heart racing, sweaty hands, and maybe a bit of panic are probably the first things that come into mind. Beyond that, though, there was probably a lesson learned that came from that debacle. Tyler Tervooren published an article on the website, Prsuit, detailing how excruciating these moments can seem and why they are vital to your success.

embarrassing failure
Photo © Flickr User ModernDope (old account)

He went into detail about his first business venture, a coffee subscription service, and two mortifying moments that helped put him on the path to achieving his goals. The first being a “cupping” meeting in which he had no idea how cupping worked. Trying to impress the individual you want to do business with in that situation can feel horrifying, but if he had backed out, he wouldn’t have learned all of the vital information he received that day. The second embarrassing moment came to him in a grocery store when, totally out of options, he brought boxes to the store to figure out the best way to package his coffee. Were people staring? Sure. Did he feel uncomfortable? Yes. But figuring out how to pack those boxes saved him a bunch of money. Tervooren provided some great advice:

“If you’re afraid to do something important because you’re afraid it’ll be embarrassing, it’s not actually important to you. What you spend your time on is what’s actually important to you.”

So get out there an embarrass yourself. You may find that you will be on the receiving end of positive change. What may feel like failure could actually be success in disguise!

Share on TumblrSubmit to redditShare via email Share

Related Posts

  1. Don’t Embrace Failure?
    A writer named Marc Avnet has a problem with failure. He thinks that talking about the value of failure has become way too trendy.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 13th, 2015. You can follow any responses to this entry through RSS 2.0. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.


© Copyright 2009-2021 Robby Slaughter - All Rights Reserved • Theme from Web Considerations, LLC