Instead of seeing our failure as a
necessary step in our growth process,
we sulk like every wrong turn is a
major snafu. Instead of embracing
our failure as a lesson that will bring
us closer to what will work, we give
up. We ease back into the comfort
zone, and we stop innovating,
challenging, creating, and advancing.
We settle.
We listen to the naysayers. Some
people love to see others fail.
Can you imagine if every
scientist tried one trial, one
experiment, and when it failed,
gave up? Or better yet, failed, and
didn’t share the failure? We share
failures all the time in the scientific
community; we depend on learning
from other’s failures.
If we didn’t expect to fail, we
wouldn’t have electricity or
computers or cars. We wouldn’t
have immunizations or life-saving
antibiotics.
The older I get, the more I
embrace my failures. The more I
expect to fail, and I’ve learned
something important … I need to
share my failures. Sharing my
failures with others is helpful. Not
only do I get to hear advice that
“ We don’t get
upset when
we fail in
research...
We reevaluate
and move
forward.”
Sasha K. Shillcutt, MD
may help me not make the same
mistake again, but it also helps
validate others and encourages
them not to quit the task at hand.
Here’s the thing: When we share
our failures, we build resiliency.
In ourselves, and in others.
When we are transparent with our
failures, we are better mentors,
teachers, and colleagues. We also
become more encouraged and
emboldened to try again.
If you are an innovator, or a
mover and a shaker, if you are a
creator, a leader, or even if you are
the leading expert in whatever you
do, you are going to fail.
Expect it. Share it. And then keep
going.
Sasha K. Shillcutt, MD, MS, FASE is an
Associate Professor and Vice Chair in the
Department of Anesthesiology at the University of
Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC). She
underwent her residency in Anesthesiology at
UNMC and completed an Executive Fellowship
in Perioperative Echocardiography at the
University of Utah Medical Center. She is a
board certified Anesthesiologist and holds national
leadership positions in several organizations. Sasha
is a wife, mother, national educator, writer, and
speaker. In 2016, Sasha was awarded the
national American Medical Associations Women
Physician’s Inspiring Physician Award by her
peers. Sasha’s greatest passion is encouraging others
to achieve personal greatness in their professional
and personal lives and she speaks nationally on
resiliency. She believes that it is a privilege to care
for all people, no matter what background and
blogs at www.becomebraveenough.com. Her
proudest role is being mother to her four amazing
children and her favorite time is spent on the
sideline of many basketball, soccer and dance
events cheering on her squad. Her children inspire,
energize, and ground her.
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