Wednesday, December 31, 2008

How do you teach this lesson?

I like this thought from the Quotation of the day:

"Knowing how to transform failure into success is more important than knowing how to succeed."
- Ernest Hall


This is a great lesson for children to learn. I'm wonder, how can you teach it? Or how do you know when it has been learned?

I think part of knowing how to transform failure into success is a basic character issue. Individuals will only succeed if they keep going even when things are not going their way. We teach our children perseverance when they lose a game in soccer, or have to rewrite a paper, or when they see us keep on trying.

Another part of being able to transform failure into success is being creative and looking for options. I often try to get my children to think in terms of many options. It is easy to fall into a binary frame of mind. It is easy to think either my first attempt will work, or I will fail. I'm trying to get my daughters to always look for many options, because often the second, or third, or tenth approach they think of will be a great solution.

What else helps children learn to rise above failure, to keep striving until they succeed?


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Technorati tags: success, failure

4 comments:

Luke Holzmann said...

Another aspect to consider is a proper definition of success. Because even if something fails, like a business startup, that does not mean that it wasn't a success if we realize that to succeed is to do something positively meaningful.

Granted, this can't be used in every case, but it is another part of this puzzle.

~Luke

Henry Cate said...

That is a great point. I like Stephen Covey's comment about how some people are climbing the ladder as fast as they can only to realize it is on the wrong wall.

Crimson Wife said...

My DD is a big fan of the Boston Red Sox, so I like to remind her that the team's star slugger, David Ortiz, gets out more than he gets a hit.

Also, there's all the ultimately successful businessmen who experienced bankruptcy at some point- Milton Hershey, Henry Ford, Walt Disney, etc.

Henry Cate said...

Thank you for the comment. You raise a good point. I think I'll have my daughters read a few more biographies. All men and women who accomplish anything have setbacks.