Admitting Failure

The first step to success

(“People are only clever at shifting blame from their own
shoulders to those of others.” - Titus Livius, 59 BC–17 AD)

Presented by Venkatesan L
Feb 2021
Definition
• Failure is the state or condition of not meeting a
desirable or intended objective, and may be
viewed as the opposite of success
• Webster’s dictionary defines failure as “the
nonperformance of an assigned or expected
action” or “a falling short of one’s goals.” 
• Failure teaches us humility
• I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways
that won't work.— Thomas A. Edison
Power of Admitting Failure
• Confucius said, “If you make a mistake and do not
correct it, this is called a failure.” Yet, many times when
a mistake is made, people try to pretend that it did not
happen. They attempt to justify the wrong position or
try to cover it up, which leads to additional mistakes.
This situation reminds me of another quote — “When
you find yourself in a hole, stop digging.”

• It’s really hard to talk about failure

• Admitting Failure hopes to change that in future
• It allows us to learn and progress
The four kinds of mistakes
• Stupid: Absurdly dumb things that just happen. Stubbing your toe, dropping
your pizza on your neighbor’s fat cat or poking yourself in the eye with a
banana
• Simple: Mistakes that are avoidable but your sequence of decisions made
inevitable. Having the power go out in the middle of your party because you
forgot to pay the rent, or running out of beer at said party because you didn’t
anticipate the number of guests
• Involved: Mistakes that are understood but require effort to prevent.
Regularly arriving late to work/friends, eating fast food for lunch every day,
or going bankrupt at your start-up company because of your complete
ignorance of basic accounting
• Complex: Mistakes that have complicated causes and no obvious way to
avoid next time. Examples include making tough decisions that have bad
results, relationships that fail, or other unpleasant or unsatisfying outcomes
to important things
Advantages / Benefits
• Acknowledging and accepting your failures can
make you a stronger and more successful
professional
• Openly acknowledging failure is often a catalyst
for innovation that takes work from good to
great
• In any counseling, admitting failure helps the
counselor to set new directions for future
• Admitting failure is the stepping stone for
progress in organization and Life
Disadvantages
• 66% believe that talking about their faults will
make them vulnerable to rejection or mockery
from others. Many times the failures is keep
mentioned as ridicule
• Failures will be attached to the individuals or
teams as trade mark
• Sometimes it will be bottleneck for promotion or
progress
• Family might use it in wrong ways (small
mistake in life is make them to go away)
Appreciate that failure is not avoidable
• Understand why you made the decision you took based on the
information you had
• Assess you decisions based on what you knew at the time
• Judge the systemic errors you committed in under- or
overestimating difficulties, costs, timelines, abilities, etc.,
• Examine whether you had all the information you needed
• Investigate what successes are contained in the failure and
draw dividends
• Plan to obtain more and better information to underpin future
decisions
• Use the experience to build and work from strengths
• Set a new goal, order your plan, take action, reevaluate
progress, and adjust continually
Another view to failure
• The degree of success or failure in a situation
may be differently viewed by distinct observers
or participants, such that a situation that one
considers to be a failure, another might consider
to be a success, a qualified success or a neutral
situation
• Being able to admit you failed at something is a
liberating experience
Conclusion
• “Having a bad idea, not executing well, not
having the courage to change or adapt, not
building the right team, or making bad
decisions are among so many possible
ways in which we can fail,” - Professor
Sydney Finkelstein of Dartmouth College’s
Tuck School of Business 
Sign-off
Thanks for your golden time
• Presentation mistakes aren’t generally a problem. It’s how they are
handled that can be. Having a strategy ready for how to react if
you notice a mistake in your own presentation, will prevent you
from having to think on your feet. (admitting my failure if any in the ppt)
It is the questions time ….

By : Venkatesan L
9942019000
placementdirector@gmail.com