We often hear of the notion of how people have “made it.” This view of having “made it” refers to that of success. However, we seldom hear of how, when and why people do not succeed (or rather, why they fail) in their endeavours. During a leadership dinner hosted by SAWIP board member Karin Strydom, we addressed this issue.

Harvey Floyd, from the Center for Creative Leadership, raised the concern on how industry leaders are openly willing to share in their success stories, yet seldom candidly admit their failures. In response to this issue, Renosi Mokate, an executive board director of the World Bank, shared a story in which she acknowledged a letdown. After matriculating top of her class, her parents encouraged her to complete her A-levels because they felt that she was too young to immediately begin her university career. Since she did not particularly want to do her A-levels, this resulted in her not performing very well in her A-level studies. Based on this admitted failure, she had a different mindset and approach when she started her university career. Moreover, in a way of claiming back her potential, she graduated top of her class with her undergraduate degree.

Sharing life experiences and lessons of successes and failures can be an effective tool of mentoring. Whether the outcome of an endeavour results in success or failure depends on the sequence of events following the first step. Often times, this initial step involves a measure of risk. Similarly to the board game of Monopoly that I grew up playing, taking chances may cause uncertainty driven by fear. However, the fear of failure should not be a limitation for taking steps to fulfilling our dreams. Instead, when we recognize our shortfalls, we should take steps to counter them by admitting our imperfections, re-assessing the situation and taking steps to make improvements, and thereby learning through the changes.