The Art of Work: A Proven Path to Discovering What You Were Meant to Do

organizations don’t succeed in spite of failure; they succeed
because of it. In the case of Groupon, a failed philanthropy
effort led to a for-profit enterprise that succeeded in ways
the original founders never imagined. Sometimes failure is
the best thing that can happen to you if you learn to listen to
the lessons in it.
The world can be cruel. It’s nobody’s responsibility to
make your dream come true. Tough times will come, and
what determines a person’s success during such trying times
is the ability to pivot. Every calling encounters setbacks, and
sometimes people don’t want what you have to offer, or
maybe they just don’t understand it. Other times, life throws
a curveball or the passion you once had wanes. At times like
these, we are inclined to give up, but these are the moments
that require our most intentional action.
In any pursuit, the temptation is to go it alone—to
subscribe to a few blogs, read a business book, and start
acting like an expert. We praise such entrepreneurial
initiative, thinking it’s what drives modern innovation, but
we couldn’t be more wrong. Every great endeavor begins
with a smaller, less significant one. This is the season of
failure that marks critical preparation steps of history’s
heroes. Albert Einstein worked in a patent office; Benjamin
Franklin was forced to flee his hometown; Steve Jobs got
kicked out of his own company. We all face times of
irrelevance; of falling on our faces and thinking we have no
business doing any of this. But pain is the great teacher and
failure a faithful mentor. You can use all of this to your