At our April First Tuesday Write & Read, we dove into something important that we often don’t like to talk about: failure.
Yeah, not the most fun topic, but hang with us. We’ve all been there, right?
According to Merriam-Webster, failure means “falling short, lacking success, or feeling like a failure.” But hold up; let’s flip the script on that.
Have you ever heard of the Museum of Failure? Yeah, it’s a thing.
I first learned about the Museum of Failure when Jay Shetty, author, podcaster, and former monk, talked about it.
The museum is a place where epic fails are celebrated, like actress Linda Evans’ electric hockey mask to stimulate your facial muscles or the Hawaii Chair that gives you an ab workout while you sit. (You have to watch this clip of Ellen DeGeneres, trying out the Hawaii Chair. I laughed until I cried.) I’m not even going into the golf club urinal. All total flops.
But here’s the kicker: the best ideas often crash and burn. Museum founder Dr. Samuel West says, “The main message of the museum is that it’s okay to share your inadequacies, your failures, your stupid questions, your unrefined ideas without being negatively judged. The museum aims to stimulate productive discussion about failure and inspire us to take meaningful risks.”
So, why do we beat ourselves up when we fail? Why hide our screw-ups? That’s what we’re tackling tonight. Personally, I’ve had my fair share of blunders, especially in my business. I’ve spent years and tons of cash and made more mistakes than I care to admit.
First, let’s brainstorm. Make a list of minor and epic fails you’ve experienced–burnt dinners, DIY disasters, relationship mishaps—whatever comes to mind.
After you’ve brainstormed for a bit, pick one of the items on your list and write the story of this less-than-perfect outcome.
Remember, the only way to do this wrong is to not do it at all!
Once you’ve written your story, post it in the comments section below. We’d love to celebrate your failures and successes with you.
I’m sure I’ve had many colossal failures in my life, none of which are coming to mind, save for one, homemade angel food cake. My mother, bless her heart, was a master angel food cake baker. She’d take her orange-bordered recipe out of her recipe box. On the page opposite this recipe was her recipe for sponge cake. More on that later. She next separated one dozen eggs, placing the whites of the eggs into her huge, yellow Pyrex(c) bowl. Next came out her Dazey(c) rotary eggbeater. With this, she beat the egg whites, along with a quarter teaspoon of… Read more »
With more than eighty trips around the sun, I certainly have enough blunders in my rear view mirror to keep an audience amused for a while. One of them is a learning experience that deals with knowing when to talk and when to be quiet. As a generally shy and quiet teen, I must have been bursting to voice my opinion that day: My high school was located on top of a steep hill, accessible from my direction either on foot by a multi-level flight of stairs or by pedaling the bike up the hill, often followed by the streetcar… Read more »
Monique, great story and well written. Lesson well learned. I probably would have responded as you did, if the bike parting episode was a common occurrence. Where was your school located, and what city, state?
Thank you for your kind comment, Jackie. I actually grew up in Basel, Switzerland, where using the bicycle amidst heavier vehicles for work or school is very common. Regrettably, bike stands are not as numerous as would-be users.
I wanted a pastel color for my bathroom and chose a shade of pink. It looked fine on the sample, but not on my bathroom walls. It was a bright, hot pink. Oops!
My friend, Lynn asked if I could get used to it over time. No, I couldn’t.
So, after painting over the pink walls with a primer, then diluting the pink paint with some white; I finally felt satisfied with the color of this tiny room, light pink with just a few brush strokes of hot pink on the ceiling for contrast.
Nancy, it was amusing to read about your paint challenge. Pink is a very different color to pick for a bathroom. You must like pink. But hot pink might have made it unbearable and so bright in that bathroom. Good choice to mellow it down with primer. And you are so right that many times the color looks very different as a sample in the store and the real thing on your wall.