Failure stops people from doing the things they dream about. Whether it’s opening a boutique bookstore in Brooklyn or asking someone to go to a movie, the idea of doing something and it not going well paralyzes us from moving forward. In some cases, it stops all progression entirely, keeping us in a safe place.
Getting past that fear of failure reaps true rewards. Your bookstore could be successful, and that first movie could blossom into something more. But what kind of superpower do you need to push forward and set those fears aside?
As it turns out, it’s not that complicated.
Seeing Double
Eventually, I was separated from the other kids and given a tutor who taught me in ways that my mind could comprehend. She saw how there were two sides to my personality: Joking Glenn and School Glenn. I was a completely different child when I was relaxed, but put me under the stress of a classroom, and I became a mumbling and reclusive kid.
This was made worse later, when in eighth grade I discovered that I had been reading incorrectly. I was crossing my eyes, causing me to see words double, which resulted in misspellings and difficulty reading aloud. I was the stupid guy in class, and to me it was obvious.
It was all very difficult to manage.
Good from Bad
These failures were my life for years, and eventually I learned what made me different and how to face those challenges. If I felt cared for, I opened up and became more cheerful. When I didn’t feel that way, I shut down and hid. Therefore, to become the person I wanted to be, I needed to surround myself with people who cared about me. My environment needed to be nurturing, not full of stress and angst. Once I figured that out, my entire world changed.
What was once a weakness is now a superpower, and I have done all I can to capitalize on it. But this doesn’t mean you have to go through what I did to have the same abilities. You just need the same solution.
Building a Caring Environment
At my company, Snapcab, we do multiple things to ensure our new and existing employees feel cared for and valued. There’s an anniversary video that we put together when an employee hits the one-year mark. Their coworkers give testimonials about what that person has done throughout the year and give them kudos, but it also gives a look into their hobbies and personal life, so everyone can get to know them better.
That’s just one example. There’s also the flowers for big life events, and company-wide breakfasts for new hires. During COVID, we even delivered diapers and groceries to employees who needed them. We want our people to feel truly cared for. And we know that if we create that kind of environment for them, they will be willing to face their fears of failure and push harder to succeed. Then we all win.
A Replicable Result
You can do the same thing with your organization by creating your own caring structure. You can build this any way you like, as long as your employees know that the acts are genuine and not just window dressing. By doing that, you’ll learn firsthand the power of running a human business and see just how powerful your people can be.