Afraid of Failure? Think Like a Scientist and Get Over It.
I recently had a wonderful conversation with my friend, Beck Tench. During our chat, Beck told me about an interesting shift in thinking that occurred while she worked at a science museum.
During her time there, Beck said that she learned how to treat failure like a scientist.
How does a scientist treat failure? And what can we learn from their approach?
Treat Failure Like a Scientist
When a scientist runs an experiment, there are all sorts of results that could happen. Some results are positive and some are negative, but all of them are data points. Each result is a piece of data that can ultimately lead to an answer.
And that’s exactly how a scientist treats failure: as another data point.
This is much different than how society often talks about failure. For most of us, failure feels like an indication of who we are as a person.
Failing a test means you’re not smart enough. Failing to get fit means you’re undesirable. Failing in business means you don’t have what it takes. Failing at art means you’re not creative. And so on.
But for the scientist, a negative result is not an indication that they are a bad scientist. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. Proving a hypothesis wrong is often just as useful as proving it right because you learned something along the way.
Your failures are simply data points that can help lead you to the right answer.
