On the fear of making "failure" visible

This article was published originally in Fika.

Failure is an ugly word, but it’s just that—a word; it serves to represent a complex reality in a simple way.

Two months ago, I decided to share a reflection on LinkedIn about a situation I considered a failure:

Dealing with failure and frustration is something we aren’t usually taught, and yet, it’s important: sooner or later it will cross our path, and the way we face it will make all the difference.

Today, for me, marks the culmination of a new failure: one more, one that had been brewing for a long time on a very low heat, but which inexorably colors every daily action and every thought.

When that moment arrives, the only thing I can try to do is accept it, dissect it to see what it’s made of, and learn from it to close it completely—not halfway—and try to prevent it from happening again.

Today is a painful day, but tomorrow will be a new day: I will let go of the dead weight to get back up and move forward, I will regain the lost enthusiasm and motivation, the kind I had until not long ago and that has brought me to where I am today. 🌅

I know I have the support of a few people—not many, but the ones who make a difference—and that is what gives me the strength to try again. 💪

I will fail again, but next time it will be a different failure. 🔁

It’s not the end; it’s a lesson. I will get up again and do better. Today, for me, marks the culmination of a new failure: one more, one that had been brewing for a long time on a very low heat, but which inexorably colors every daily action and every thought.

When that moment arrives, the only thing I can try to do is accept it, dissect it to see what it’s made of, and learn from it to close it completely—not halfway—and try to prevent it from happening again.

Today is a painful day, but tomorrow will be a new day: I will let go of the dead weight to get back up and move forward, I will regain the lost enthusiasm and motivation, the kind I had until not long ago and that has brought me to where I am today. 🌅

I know I have the support of a few people—not many, but the ones who make a difference—and that is what gives me the strength to try again. 💪

I will fail again, but next time it will be a different failure. 🔁

It’s not the end; it’s a lesson. I will get up again and do better.

I try to be a transparent person and often I need to externalize and make my mistakes, frustrations, etc., visible. Why? Let’s not kid ourselves, there are many more people than we might think who have shared similar situations. But I am also aware that showing something like this could be detrimental when looking for a new project, getting an opportunity, or being rejected (usually silently) for a job offer just because you talked about one of your failures; I think that also says very little about that company.

We have all had, have, and will have failures of different sizes; they are part of the path that has led us to where we are. What makes the difference is what you do with it: whether you close yourself off for fear of repeating it, whether it makes you cautious and try to better assess risks in the future, or whether you can learn from the mistakes you and others made. Because yes, I firmly believe that in most cases of failure (especially professional ones), the failure doesn’t belong to a single individual; it’s a shared failure from which all parties should try to perform a self-assessment and learn what to improve or change to avoid reaching the point of no return, which is usually failure.

I perfectly understand the fear of showing failures. Most people, especially those who live off their outward image more than what they actually do, will tell you that it’s showing your weaknesses.

I believe the exact opposite: showing your supposed weaknesses is like showing the scars of past wounds that have already healed, and that is just a testament to all the battles you’ve fought before coming back for the next one.