Fail Forward

I am so excited by this project. Fail Forward is a concept that I along with a number of other people have been working on for over a year now. 

The inspiration came from a trip to Aaltoes society in Finland in 2012 with 3 entrepreneurial educators from across the UK. A write up about that will be added to my blog soon!

aaltoes

During the trip I was introduced to Riku, a continued friend and contact in Finland. Riku talked in depth about Day for Failure a project he had been involved in setting up to celebrate failure across Finland.

I will never forget my constant excuses to him about why I hadn’t started working on a number of my own ideas but rather had been helping other people start… This was a real turning point from which I now have set myself a personal mission to take up opportunities and give everything to them if they help me to meet my overall personal mission… (Another story, another time) This has lead to me running 3 different projects: South Africa Challenge, Loughborough Beanies and Fail Forward at the same time as supporting others to take on their ideas. (and developing a few more to be announced soon…)

The concept connected with me so deeply, I realised that I had been brought up in a designed environment that from a young age told you that failure was NOT ok.

You had to be the best in your class, the best in goal (I was a football goal keeper for a long time) or the perfect son or daughter. The truth and I can only say this on reflection is that I was living a life in which I would select things that I knew I could do well in. I didn’t take part in other stuff or really get involved until I got to university and even then I didn’t push myself hard enough to try until Finland. I am not saying I have regrets, every decision I have taken has no doubt brought me to the person I am today and hopefully will continue to scope me to becoming the person I want to be. However, I am so glad that I learnt that now rather than later on!

Failure Dale

So here it is Fail Forward is coming to Loughborough with a mission to:

Change the culture, feeling and understanding in the UK of failure

 by sharing stories, bringing people together and provoking conversation

on failure as an important part of growth & learning

I have a vision that Loughborough will be the beginning…

I see this concept as something that needs to spread as far and wide. I know that people will disagree with promoting failure and I am ready for it and to a certain extent that is the point. In challenging and intellectual conversation that follow, we can  begin to tackle our societal understanding of failure. In this process, I hope, we will aid in individuals personal development as it has in mine.

If you want more information about Fail Forward have a look at our website www.failforward.co , share your stories and challenge me to bring Fail Forward to a town, city or country near you!


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