If You Want To Improve, You Have To Fail

It's no surprise that sports often use as a reference for business or personal development. In my opinion, many of the experiences lived in the field of play can be transferred to business logic. Today I am going to talk about a classic concept in tennis: unforced errors, and how they can help you have a better business.

The problematic of the serve

If you have played a racket sport, you will know that the serve is one of the most important and difficult to control technical aspects. If you are a debutant, and your opponent also, at the beginning you will have the objective of not wanting to have an exchange. The result is a serve very easy to return, and that would put you in danger against any player with just a little more technique. But hey, you start, it's normal that you try to insure.

In fact, when you are a beginner, you are going to play everything with the same philosophy that you take out. You will return the balls to the center, so as not to fail, and you will not risk much.

What's wrong with it?

When you play for the first time, nothing I have commented on is bad. You will not become Federer from one day to the next. But the problem starts when you continue doing the same in later practices. Okay, you are improving little by little, your serves are more precise, a little faster, and your hits are better placed on the track, but if you do not make unforced mistakes, then you have a problem.

You need to fail

An unforced error is when you fail without being pressured by the other player. If your opponent places a very powerful and well placed serve and fails to return it correctly, it is not an unforced error. Neither is it if you have been caught on the wrong foot, you arrive late to pick up the ball and fail. I tell you about the situations in which you have control of the play, but even so, it goes wrong. And I tell you it's better if you fail often.

Why would I want you to make unforced mistakes?

Most of the time, unforced errors have as a common point wanting to try something different, and risky. You want to place a very long ball, so that your opponent can not reach, but you stay a few inches away. You try to make a leave, but it stays in the network. Hurrah, but you intended to make a winning play.

If you do not try those plays, you may not miss much, but your progression will be very slow. You will win the first matches, especially if your opponent risks, but very soon he will improve and then you will lose, because his level will have gone up much more than yours.

In business and in life, that logic is also valid

If you are very conservative with the decisions of your business, it is very difficult for you to achieve great things. Innovating means risking, and therefore testing new paths is quite likely that things go wrong a few times. But in the end you will find the right solution.

Even in personal life this logic can be applied. Imagine that you had never taken the step of telling a person you like, because of the fear of failing. You would not have known the rejection, it's true, but probably you would not have had much experience in relationships either.

Of course, it is not about going crazy, or taking exaggerated risks. It's about accepting that to get a better solution, sometimes you need to take a risk, and therefore sometimes you have to endure the consequences of a failure.

What has been your best learning after a failure? Share it in the comments section.