“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.”
Hi, friends! 👋
Welcome to the Brilliance Brief. Every week, we break down leadership, mindset, and personal growth into something real and doable. Expect research-backed insights, a little storytelling, and practical ideas that actually fit into your life (even the messy parts).
Right now, my 20-month-old son is running all over the house (and yard, and stores, and anywhere he can get his feet on the ground and out of our grip).
He only learned how to walk earlier this year.
Before that, he fell down. A lot.
Every time he tried to stand up, he tumbled over and hit the carpet.
He must have fallen down 1,000s of times before he figured out his balance.
He never got embarrassed. He just got right back up.
My daughter is 6.
She’s at the age where she wants everything to be perfect immediately.
The other morning, she had a meltdown because she was trying to draw a cat.
She couldn’t get the ears and whiskers right on the first try.
I sat down with her and watched her try again.
She had to mess up about 15 times before she drew a cat she liked.
Somewhere between childhood and adulthood, we stop being willing to look foolish.
We think failure is bad.
We think we should be great at everything right away.
And if we aren’t immediately good at something, we don’t even want to try.
The awkward stage of learning
I catch myself falling into this trap all the time.
After 23 years in corporate leadership, I left to start my own business.
Suddenly, I had to learn how to build a personal brand, write content, and network on social media.
I was terrible at it.
One month in, my numbers on LinkedIn were dropping. I was putting in hours of effort daily with nothing to show for it.
It was stressful and embarrassing. (I was ready to have my own meltdown and quit.)
I had two choices: pack it up and walk away, or double down.
I doubled down. I took courses, hired a coach, and put in the reps. It paid off.
“Failure is not an option” is the wrong model
In business, people love to repeat the old line: “Failure is not an option.”
That sounds tough. But it’s far too black and white.
Harvard professor Amy Edmondson has spent years studying team performance. She found something interesting. The best-led teams reported more mistakes than average teams.
The good teams felt safe enough to speak up when something went wrong.
The other teams kept their mistakes hidden.
Punish every mistake and people get quiet. They hide problems, avoid risks, and stick to what’s safe.
If you want your team to grow, you have to make it safe to fail.
3 ways to build a culture where people can grow
#1: Treat failure as information, not a verdict.
My son fell thousands of times learning to walk. Every fall taught him something about balance.
When a project goes sideways, don’t ask, “Who messed up?”
Ask: “What did we learn? What can we adjust next time?”
#2: Give people room to stretch.
People only discover their potential when they try new things.
Give your team projects that sit slightly outside their comfort zone. Tell them upfront you’ll have their back if things get messy.
Your team will take bigger swings when they know you’re behind them.
#3: Praise the attempt.
If you only celebrate big wins, your team will only take safe bets.
Celebrate the teammate who took a smart risk or tested a new idea, even if the outcome wasn’t perfect.
Get specific. Praise the process, not just the result.
Try this today
Think about something uncomfortable you’ve been avoiding.
Maybe it’s trying the AI tool everyone at work already seems to know. Speaking up in a leadership meeting. Picking up the weights instead of always walking on the treadmill.
Whatever it is, give yourself permission to be bad at it today.
And if you lead a team, say these words in your next meeting:
“I don’t expect us to be perfect. I expect us to try new things, learn fast when we mess up, and support each other along the way.”
Watch how quickly the energy in the room changes.
Talk soon,
Justin
P.S. What’s one skill you tried to learn as an adult that felt totally awkward at first?
For me, it was talking to a camera. I must have recorded my first video post 20 times.
Hit “reply” and let me know. I read every one.
