5 Hidden Benefits of Failure You Should Know

Whether it is an exam, a business, an interview or just any other venture, failure is not something desirable.

But sometimes it happens.

And when it does, it really comes along with valuable lessons.

However, whether we will profit from failure or not, depends on how we respond. If you respond positively every time you fail, by consciously picking yourself up, identifying the lessons and sincerely trying to avoid a repeat, then you will notice the advantages failure brings along.

Let us consider five of the benefits failure offers:

#1. It Helps You to Know What Will Not Work

Before Thomas Edison succeeded with the invention of a light bulb, he had failed at several attempts.

In an 1890 interview in Harper’s Monthly Magazine, Edison said,

“‘I speak without exaggeration when I say that I have constructed three thousand different theories in connection with the electric light, each one of them reasonable and apparently likely to be true. Yet only in two cases did my experiments prove the truth of my theory.'”

But Edison knew that failure had its positives.

So, when his friend and associate Walter Mallory, asked him, ‘Isn’t it a shame that with the tremendous amount of work you have done you haven’t been able to get any results?’ Edison turned on him like a flash, and with a smile replied: ‘Results!  Why, man, I have gotten lots of results!  I know several thousand things that won’t work!'”

Indeed, failure helps you to know what is not likely to produce the desired results. So, if you deployed an approach in your first business and it failed, when you pick yourself up and eventually succeed in that, in your next business, you know surely to avoid a repeat of failure in that particular area.

That knowledge is yours! It stays with you, no one can take it away from you. Yet, you can transfer it, apply it or even monetize it!

#2. It Helps You to See What You Are Missing, Neglecting or Ignoring

When you fail and you honestly decide to figure out what made you stumble, you will suddenly begin to see things in a clearer light. You will discover things you never observed to be crucial. You will realize what you neglected or ignored and you will notice what the missing link was.

By the time your next attempt is due, you’ll realize you are better prepared.

Not only that, you now possess information that makes you a valuable resource because you know what must be given attention to for failure to be avoided.

I failed a couple of times in school and in the end, i often thank God i did because usually in my post-analysis, i would discover lots of stuff i neglected, ignored or missed.

#3. It Provides You the Opportunity to Become Better

As you genuinely make efforts to avoid a repeat failure, you inevitably become better.

Assuming you failed a course in school for instance, you find yourself getting better and more knowledgeable at it as you work diligently to prevent another failure.

If you failed at a competition, or didn’t deliver a speech well, as you strive to excel in the subsequent edition, you see yourself improving by the day.

So, in reality, failure provides you the opportunity to learn, unlearn, relearn, grow and become better.

The onus is on you to see it as such an opportunity and so utilize it.

#4. It Gives You Experience that Proves Handy for You and Others Later

Sometimes when we fail, it just happens to be a blessing in disguise for us (and for others) in later situations.

That episode of failure and the lessons it taught you often sticks to your memory; and so, it helps you to confront similar situations in time to come.

Meanwhile, because experiential knowledge is very powerful and convincing, your experience can help the other person know how to scale his or her own hurdle.

Once you tell someone, ‘It once happened to me or I have done it before’, it sends a very striking message. The person wants to listen to you. And often times, you may be the answer the person has been praying and looking for.

Imagine someone who tried to quit a bad habit or an addiction but failed several times until he/she latched unto a breakthrough. Years later, someone else who is going through that path, may prefer to listen to him/her than someone who never failed at it. That’s because the younger individual will feel he/she will be able to relate more with that person’s experience.

Now think about it, what if the first person quit trying because he/she had felt failure is final?

This is one reason why we should never stop at failure. For every failure, we must strive to succeed; who knows, we may turn out to be the life jacket for others with that singular experience.

#5. It Prepares You for the Big Stage

Every path in life has different stages. For everything we fail or succeed at, there will always be a bigger stage ahead.

When a student fumbles in a test, it is just to help him avoid failure in the exams – which is a bigger stage.

By giving us a smaller embarrassment early on, failure saves us from the shame of the big one. It motivates us to prepare hard to avoid a repeat embarrassment when more eyes will be watching and the stakes are higher.

That’s what happened to me back in high school. A humbling failure at a lower class helped me avoid a repeat 3 years after.

It was the big stage. And it felt good to excel there.

On the Whole

Many of us are often afraid to fail. And that keeps us rooted to a spot or worse still, drives us backwards.

We need to keep it in our consciousness that failure is not a bad thing. We need to reckon with the truth that failure surely has positives.

This perspective will help us even more to banish the fear of failure, subdue the thought of failure and maximize any failure that happens.

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See Also

What You Really Need to Do to Grow As a Person

What Every Student Should Know Before Taking a Course in the University

30 Things a Christian Should Do Before Turning 30: A Bucket List From Jesus’ Life

6 Striking Lessons from the Story of Joseph

Why You Should Develop Your Leadership Potential

8 Powerful Ways to Take Charge of Your Life

The Power of a Possibility Mentality: What a Childhood Experience Taught Me

5 Tricky Pitfalls Every Leader Should Avoid: Lessons from King Darius

Success is Not Sorcery 

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 Ogaga Eruteya is a Nigerian Christian minister, writer and speaker. He writes on Faith, Personal Development, Youth Development, and Life Realities. With his words, he seeks to inspire, motivate, propagate life’s truths and represent a sincere Christian voice. Learn more about Ogaga here.