On Failure and the Feedback Loop

Thomas Jefferson, one of the most notable inventors in American history, once said:

“I haven't failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that don't work.”

He understood the value of failure in that it got him one step closer to the missing piece of the puzzle. The environment gave him everything he needed in terms of showing him what part of his lightbulb wasn’t working, but his mentality pushed him forward.

Thomas Jefferson was a proponent of the feedback loop. Every human that is effective in their given field is. They have their own derivative of the trial and error process that Thomas Jefferson went through in every experiment. The feedback may not be as immediate as a light bulb not turning on, but it still happens.

In marketing, for example, a particular multi-step campaign may take a couple of weeks to deliver full feedback. Thanks to the power of analytics, it’s incredibly easy to see what works and what doesn’t.

When it comes to life, however, the feedback loop gets tougher to implement. Emotions and feelings are damn tough to track. It’s important to adopt a methodology around re-assessing how you reacted to certain things including your failures.

The RARI Method is an example of a homemade model this writer uses.

• Recognize the behavior

• Analyze how it makes you feel

• Research potential solutions

• Implement them

After the method is followed, it’s re-assessed on a weekly basis until it becomes a habit.

Failure is okay, but not being able to find feedback to push forward is not.