Failure Is an Option, but Fear Is Not
By Donald Latumahina (follow me on Twitter) , April 12, 2010
That’s what James Cameron said at the end of his TED talk and I love it. It’s simple but powerful. Failure is an option, but fear is not.

Unfortunately, people often do the exact opposite: failure is not an option, but fear is. They don’t tolerate failure but they tolerate fear. They despise people who fail but they let fear get in the way of reaching their dreams.

We shouldn’t join them, of course. Let’s be on the right side of the fence.

Failure Is an Option
Here is how to apply this principle in your life:

1. Make room for failure

Nobody wants to fail, but failing is inevitable on your way to success. George Bernard Shaw said:

A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.

So if you never fail then it probably means that you do nothing. Failing shows that you actually do something instead of just sitting in your comfort zone.

2. Learn from each failure

Though you need to make room for failure, you shouldn’t just fail. You need to fail intelligently. That means each failure should teach you something. Don’t just fail and get nothing out of it. Learn something from each failure that makes you better and better over time.

3. Fail fast

Time is precious, so if you failed then you’d better fail fast. Why? Because it will make you learn and improve faster. It will make you ready for the prime time sooner.

The key here is to shorten your feedback cycle. Find a way to get quick feedback on your effort so that you can adjust yourself soon. What you need to do is testing your idea in the real world as soon as possible. Don’t wait until everything is perfect. Instead, test it once it’s good enough and refine from there. The mantra of the open source world applies here: release early, release often.

Fear Is Not an Option
A big part of fear is fear of failure and that’s been covered above. Here are two more ways to apply this principle:

1. Take risks

Many people hesitate to work on something they aren’t familiar with because they are afraid of the unknown. But fear is not an option, so you should be willing to take risks. Explore new ideas. Experiment with new things. If you are successful, the reward could be huge. Even if you aren’t, you will still come out better than before.

2. Do things you are inconvenient with

Doing things you aren’t convenient with gives you the most opportunities for growth. Since you stretch yourself beyond your comfort zone, you will grow a lot. This isn’t easy to apply (for me, at least), but it’s something we should strive to do from time to time.

Is there anything else you learn from James Cameron’s statement? How do you befriend failure and cast out fear?

我喜欢James Cameron 在TED Talks中所说的这句话，他表达的简单但有力。是的，你可以选择失败，但是不能选择恐惧！

不幸的是，人们通常是按照相反的方式来做的：我们不能选择失败，但可以恐惧！他们不能容忍失败但是能够容忍恐惧。他们鄙视失败的人，却让恐惧深入他们的梦中。

我们当然不能成为这样的人。让我们用正确的方式。

以下告诉我们如何在生活中履行这个原则：

1.给失败留点空间

没有人想要失败，但是在追求成功的途中，失败不可避免。George Bernard Shaw 说过：相对于虚度的人生，有过错误的人生不仅仅更可敬，而且更有用。

所以如果你从来也没有过失败，他可能以为着你什么也没有做。失败代表着你确实做了什么，而不是仅仅舒服的坐在那里。

2.从每个失败里获得经验

尽管需要给失败一点空间，但你不应该仅仅是失败，而是有智慧地失败。那意味着你应该从每一个失败中学得什么，而不仅仅是失败，却什么也没有得到。从每一次失败中学习，让你比过去更优秀。

3.让失败迅速过去

时间是珍贵的，所以如果你失败了，最好让失败迅速成为过去。为什么呢？因为这样会让你更快的得到学习和提升，会让你更快为更好的时机做好准备。

关键是去缩短你的反应周期。即找到一种方式，可以快速的对你的努力成果有所反应，以至于你可以很快的调整自己。你需要去做的是尽可能在真实的世界中检验你的思想。不要等待直到每件事情都很完美，一旦你的主意够好了，就去检验他，再去从中获得改进。引用颂歌中关于世界来源中的句子：早点放松，经常放松。

对失败的恐惧占恐惧的很大一部分，上述已经对此进行了充分的阐述，以下再增添两项原则：

1.承担风险

很多人对于他们不熟悉的工作犹豫不决，这是因为他们恐惧未知。但是我们不能选择恐惧，所以你应该要愿意承担风险。探寻新的思维。对新的事物的试验。如果成功了，你将获得很大的奖励。即使失败了，也会比以前的你更好。

2.做一些对你来说有困难的事

挑战一些有困难的事，将会给你最好的成长的机会。尽管你走出了那个舒适的环境，但是你将成熟很多。这并不容易去实行，最少对于我来说是如此，但是它值得我们一次次的努力争取。

你有没有从James Cameroon的演讲中学习到其他的东西呢？你又是如何成为失败的朋友并且脱离恐惧呢？