I am convinced that learning to fail, and to recover from it, and even to become better because of it, is one of the most important lessons we can teach our children. First of all, no great discoveries are made without lots and lots of failures. If our kids are ever to do the great things they are all capable of it will only be because they manage to respond to these failures creatively and with enthusiasm. But even more importantly, no life is lived without failures. The person who can't confront them, and even relish them, becomes very brittle indeed.
This is so on the mark. Especially that last line:
brittle is the perfect word for it. That's almost poetic! Yes!
Yes. So many smart people just take what is handed to them. We've got a technical development project where the vendors keep trying to change the rules and keep coming up with objections and I have to constantly keep pushing people forward by asking what the issues are and then look for ways to solve or bypass issues. No one wants to run the risk of failure or when failure occurs, they don't want to dig in for specifics and find solutions - they just want to fall back on what works.
The attitude that we will dig in and make things work and find solutions is infectious, too. Once someone gets the knack of it, then it becomes a habit - you run into an obstacle and then automatically find a way around it.
