The 2016 was the worst failure year ever. Maybe that’s what made it the best.
I’m only talking about my own personal life that I have a degree of control over. All of the politics (Brexit, Trump) and celebrity deaths were major failures too (as far as their impact on me), but these environmental things do happen (while I am being philosophical here, I did campaign actively to make my voice heard in the mix).
But most of the external political events appear to be mostly an inconvenience to us. Brexit did directly lead to our house sale falling through (the buyer had a European business affected by Brexit), but we love living in our house, which is why we have rejected other low ball offers. We have two passports and international careers which insulates us a bit from the growing parochialism that Trump/Brexit represent.
We also had the first immediate family loss in many year with Lori’s mother passing away. We miss “Mimi” dearly, but she was very unhappy as her very advanced years and stroke-induced disability severely limited her life.
My venture, Forclarity Enhanced Medical Imaging, is still not yet off the ground, but progress continues exercising those failure embracing qualities of patience and persistence. Over the year, my knowledge and network of the medical arena has deepened considerably and key pieces of the puzzle have fallen into place. The failed initiatives taught me much and eliminated a few cul-de-sacs from draining future resources.
The freed up time also allowed me to invest in myself. The year was filled with possibly the most athletic achievement of anytime since University (though not deluded that I am anywhere near fit as that period in my life). In fact, one downside side effect of all of the activity is that I have suffered more regular aches, pains and minor injuries more days this year than any year of my life. But , the result was a year full new achievements (eg. rowing competitively for the first time in 30+ years, basketball team championship, growth of Marlow RC pararowing).
Other pursuits also flourished with the free time afforded. For example, 2016 was the biggest year for Maldives Complete, my other blog. Unfortunately, that success (perhaps poetically so) was not replicated in this blog.
I failed to post but a mere 48 times versus 82 in 2015 (and 121 in 2014, 211 in 2013, and 244 in 2012). The upside is that I am trying to focus on quality over quantity. When I was running Piero, it really didn’t consume a lot of intellectual energy. So at that time, the two areas of creative focus were Maldives Complete and this blog, but now I am devoting more of my prime “thinking” and writing time to Forclarity and Maldives Complete. Also, 10 years in, it’s harder to say something about failure that hasn’t already been said. When I started it, the concept of “Embracing Failure” was pretty novel, but now it has become so popular it is almost pedestrian. That makes it harder to come up with material that is interesting and novel.
In 2017, may all your failures bring rich silver linings.
Leadership and Management / Turning Adversity to Advantage 