Failure can be a better teacher than success (sometimes). Most of us really enjoy talking about our successes in life, but honestly our failures usually do more to shape who we are as human beings. Learning from your failures is probably the truest sign of maturity regardless of how old a person is because success can reinforce what you already know, but failure forces growth.
Last week I talked about my aviation career and how it shaped me, and this carries through to what I’m talking about today. People are not perfect, the best mechanics weren’t the ones who never made a mistake, they were the ones who owned their mistakes and learned from them. Remembering what not to do is just as important as knowing what to do. I’ve had ups and downs, successes and failures just like everyone else. Every time I’ve had a failure, I’ve pushed on and came out the other side a better person because either A) I have no other choice because people are depending on me, B) I’m willing to learn, or C) Both. Failure isn’t the opposite of success, quitting is. I was disappointed last election cycle when I was not successful while running for County Council At-Large, but the bright side of that is that I wasn’t deterred. I now have an opportunity to serve a group of people in the district that I live in, and hopefully I can help improve their lives and connect with them on a deeper level.
If I’m chosen in November, I can’t promise that I’ll always have the perfect solution or the best idea, but I can promise that the lessons from successes and failures I’ve lived through will shape the way I conduct myself when tasked with making decisions that affect many, many people. Nobody should expect a perfect government, employee, supervisor, parents, or children. What we should expect is honesty, accountability, and the desire to make improvements. Failure can create empathy – It’s easier to understand a struggle when you have faced them yourself. Council members are tasked with making decisions on behalf of a group of people, and being empathetic to their struggles and needs goes a long way in serving those people.