"Failure is an absolute, complete necessity."

I first heard this message during the live webcast in November 2013. Now it is available online. GOOD! I can listen again and again, and I post this now as a "note to self." These are some ideas gleaned from Craig Groeschel at the 2013 World Leader's Conference regarding "Leading Through the Fear of Failure."

"Failure is not an option, it's an absolute complete necessity because when you've stopped failing you've stopped taking risks, and you will stop growing and you will stop taking ground."

The paradox of the fear of failure:  "The fear of failure drives you to stop taking risks, but not taking risks ultimately leads to failure."

In spiritual terms:  "To lead without faith, it's impossible to please God. If I am so consumed with the fear of failure, that I will try to lead without faith, and without faith it's impossible to please God."

In the parable of the talents, the one who buried his, effectively said, "I was afraid, so I didn't take the risk."

"The path to your greatest potential is often straight through your greatest fear."

4 Principles:

1. Failure is often the first step toward success.

• We learn more through failing than through succeeding.
• "Never ever waste a failure!"
• "If you haven't failed recently you're playing it way too safe."
• "We could not know and do what we do today had we not learned from the mistakes that we made. Some people hesitate to try because ... it may not work, and sometimes it needs to not work so you can learn what would work the very next time."
• If you're not failing every now and then, you're playing it way too safe! 
• When is the last time you failed?
• When is the last time you launched an idea?

2. Your team needs permission to fail.

• Ask this on annual reviews: Where did you fail this year?
• Create a culture of experimentation, trying new things.
• There might be something you failed at before and it's time to try it again.
• "The antidote to the fear of failure is not success, ...it's small doses of failure."

3.  Failure is an event, not a person.

• When you do fail, and you're tempted to feel devastated...remember this...
• Don't personalize and internalize a failure, learn from it.
• Don't blame yourself for the declines, or one day you'll take credit for the increase.
• "A failure may be exactly what you need so that you can grow as the leader you're supposed to be."
• Shake it off... Step on up...
• If you're not dead, God's got more for you to do.
• You are not what you did...just shake it on off and step up. 
• "I wonder how many people have a burden and could actually impact this world, but never ever try because they're afraid to fail. What are you supposed to do?" Peter...for a moment, walked on water, but you have to get out of the boat.

4. You have to step out to find out.

• Feel the fear and do it anyway. 
• When I don't feel a little bit of that fear, that's when I get really afraid, because I've stopped leading aggressively and stopped believing and trying things that take faith. 

 
"I pray you fail. I pray you fail often. I pray you fail big. I pray you learn. I pray you adjust. I pray you do what others believe cannot be done and that you succeed for the glory of God and His kingdom."