Tips on how to learn from failure

Is failing always a bad thing?

We’ve all seen the endless reels of videos showing people doing various weird and wonderful things, which inevitably end up going wrong and making their way into a ‘Friday Fails’ showreel. However, leaders, managers and entrepreneurs see failing in a completely different light.

An entrepreneur or successful business owner often sees failing in a completely different light to others. They don’t see failures as a negative, but merely a stepping stone to greater success. This is why you often hear the phrase, ‘fail fast’.

If we are ‘failing fast’, then we are able to learn quickly and grow. The two keywords here are LEARN and GROW. The more we learn, the quicker we grow – not only as a person but as a club as well. Importantly, failure is not something we must dwell on; it’s an important milestone in the learning journey. After each failure, it’s important we reflect upon it.

Ask yourself these questions:

• What caused the failure?
• What could I have done differently?
• Was it avoidable? (bear in mind that not all failures are avoidable)

It’s important that we learn something from any failure. Without learning, we will repeat the same mistakes, and stay stuck in the same place with no progress.

Common examples of failures at a sports club

Here are a few examples of common failures and and questions you can ask yourself to reflect on them:

Our holiday camp doesn’t have enough participants

• Did you target it to the right audience? Was the imagery in your adverts perhaps too young? Were your adverts not descriptive enough?
• Was the marketing as optimised as possible? Did you use traditional methods or digital methods? Were they the right channels to use?
• Were you too late in getting the advertising out? Did you give people enough chance to book on?

An athlete didn’t reach the qualification score required

• Was there an apparatus or equipment issue?
• Were you not able to train enough?

Why is failure important in sport

Sports clubs are not only businesses, but community organisations. As owners and committee members, we’re constantly having to wear two hats: one that wants us to provide the best we can for our community, and the other to make enough money to ensure we can ensure we can run our clubs and centres properly. We don’t want to fail at either, but failure is inevitable in business and in coaching. The magic is in how you deal with that failure.

See failure as a tool, an opportunity for a new direction, rejuvenation and further development at your club. A true failure is only one where we don’t learn from our mistakes. So, remember the two F’s – Fail Fast – in order to recover quickly and grow.

This article was written by Alex Row, LoveGymnastics Community Ambassador. If you’re involved with a gymnastics or football club and would like to find more content like this, join our dedicated Facebook Communities:

• LoveGymnastics Community
• LoveFootball Community