{"id":23398,"date":"2026-03-11T14:37:30","date_gmt":"2026-03-11T14:37:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gpbookstore.org\/articles\/uncategorized\/when-failure-is-a-good-thing\/"},"modified":"2026-04-10T06:16:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T06:16:13","slug":"when-failure-is-a-good-thing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gpbookstore.org\/articles\/positive-living\/when-failure-is-a-good-thing\/","title":{"rendered":"When Failure Is a Good Thing"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Most people view failure as something that should be avoided at all costs. As humans, we tend to connect failure with a bad experience we had as a child. It may have been an \u201cF\u201d we received on a paper or the high expectations our parents placed upon our shoulders that stopped us from trying.<\/p>\n<p>Award-winning psychologist and author, Ron Friedman, tells the story of how Sara Blakely, founder of Spanx, revolutionized the women\u2019s underwear industry and became a billionaire in his book, <em>The Best Place To Work: The Art and Science of Creating an Extraordinary Workplace<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Early on, Sara overcame a series of obstacles: zero experience in the hosiery industry, lack of a an education in business and only $5,000 to invest. When asked where she found the courage, she gave all credit to her dad. While most parents ask their kids, \u201cHow was your day?\u201d when sitting down for dinner, Sara\u2019s parents asked her and her brother, \u201cWhat did you fail at today?\u201d each and every night.<\/p>\n<p>When interviewed by CNN\u2019s Anderson Cooper, Sara said, \u201cInstead of failure being the outcome, failure became not trying. It forced me at a young age to want to push myself so much further out of my comfort zone.\u201d In reality, Sara\u2019s father had re-defined failure; it became more about learning and less about a personal weakness.<\/p>\n<p>If we view failure as weakness, we avoid stepping out of our comfort zone. Instead we must remind ourselves that failure is an action, it does not define us, but instead matures us. I\u2019m sure that there are many risks we would all take in our personal, professional and spiritual lives if we could get past a fear of failure.<\/p>\n<p>What has been the greatest lesson you have learned when taking a chance? Please share with us.<\/p>\n<p><em>Lord, give me the courage and faith to step out of my comfort zone; help me to overcome my fears and grow from my failures.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Most people view failure as something that should be avoided at all costs. As humans, we tend to connect failure with a bad experience we had as a child. It may have been an \u201cF\u201d we received on a paper or the high expectations our parents placed upon our shoulders that stopped us from trying. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":120,"featured_media":30340,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[136],"tags":[258,14,36],"ppma_author":[486],"class_list":["post-23398","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-positive-living","tag-goals","tag-spiritual-growth","tag-success"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.6 (Yoast SEO v27.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>When Failure Is a Good Thing - Guideposts Articles<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"When Failure Is a Good Thing\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Most people view failure as something that should be avoided at all costs. 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