Nobody is perfect. We all make mistakes and fail on occasion…. Failure is part of the human experience. Have you ever noticed that some people come back bigger, better, smarter, stronger, etc. after they’ve failed? That just means that they used the experience as a way to grow and improve. If you fail during your career pursuit, you MUST redirect, refocus, and continue to work towards your goal.
No obstacles are insurmountable. No failure is so great that should warrant you stopping or quitting. Keep working, keep moving, keep pushing. Continuing on shows character… and character is what gets you hired.
If you look for people to blame, create excuses, or try to come up with some reason why the failure wasn’t your fault, then you’ve missed the opportunity in the failure and you’re likely going to be the same person in the same place moving forward. As much as failure hurts/sucks/costs at the time, you have to find the lesson and get something from it. Ask me how I know!
Dave Hardenburger
Dave is a Fire Captain and Paramedic for a municipal Fire Department in San Diego County. He co-founded FirefighterMedic with Josh and currently serves as a Mentor.