Failure by definition is the lack of success in doing or achieving something. We've all experienced failure in some shape or form, some more than others but failure is part of what makes us human.

It's often our perception that defines whether we've failed or succeeded, sometimes it's the opinion of our peers that guides our beliefs in this area & sometimes failure is more obvious, Like being relegated from the premier league. 

More importantly, we should think about how we measure success before deciding whether we've failed or succeeded in doing or achieving something. 

To know if you've failed you first need to understand what success looks like. Let's take a project at work as an example, in this project let's say you are tasked with planning and delivering a project from conception to completion. 

What does Success look like? 

In this example it's important to ask the right questions to the project stakeholders, those questions should be something similar to the following:

The answers to these questions would help you as the project manager to gain an understanding of the project requirements and stakeholder expectations. Without these details, you'll almost certainly fail because you don't truly understand what success looks like to the stakeholders. 

I'll end here before I lose your attention but I hope you've learned something. In this lesson, we looked at failure by definition and also explored the importance of understanding what success looks like.

A book I'll advise you to purchase if you like reading is 'How will you measure your life' by Clayton Christensen. In this powerful book, Clayton presents a set of personal guidelines that have helped him find meaning and happiness in his life. These same guidelines can be used to help you avoid failure and define what success means for you.