In the Arena, Failure is an Option.

From the Values.com billboard campaign promoting persistence.

Failure is an option. Anyone who says otherwise is either in a movie, naive, or asking for your vote.

No, I’m not becoming pessimistic in my early middle-age. Rather, I’m beginning to learn that the world is not shifted by those who stand on the sidelines and watch, but rather by the men and women who risk, who dare to make the effort, who put themselves in the arena at the risk of failure.

Theodore Roosevelt, a man who woke up every day and did something (whatever that something was that needed doing, he just went and did it. No prevaricating, waffling, hemming and hawing for him. He came, he saw, and he did) was a great example of being in the arena and of facing the possibility of failure, even failing several times during his meteoric and extraordinary career. At at the Sorbonne in Paris on April 23, 1910, he said that

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.

Better, then, to fail “while daring greatly” than to be counted among the “cold and timid souls” that know neither victory nor defeat.

It’s not only to “fail greatly,” though, that failure must be an option. Failure is a crucial piece of learning and honing the skills that lead to greatness and the “triumph of high achievement[.]”

Jason Deroner tells the story about how a small start-up called “The Point” failed and failed and failed. Then, the team at The Point started to see pieces of its product that were succeeding, especially one area in particular. It dropped everything else and focused on that piece, and today we know it as Groupon. Deroner:

If it hasn’t been driven home enough, failure can often provide the types of lessons that lead to future success. The Point swallowed their failure, abandoning their original goal of changing the world through the power of groups and honed in on a small segment of their original idea. They revolutionized deal discovery and amassed a $1.85 billion valuation, all by making things simpler and focusing on what people actually wanted.

But first, they had to fail a time or two.

Whether its business or politics, running a marathon or meeting that special person, failure must be an option if success is to be found. Willingness to face the possibility of loss, hurt, and failure is the price of success, and only those who are “in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood” will taste that sweet victory. With the New Year around the corner, its an opportunity to try something new, risk, and move yourself forward.

When you get up in the morning, what will you do?

[Jason Deroner]