Are You Great Enough to Fail?

It's not a surprise that we all like to do what we're good at. For instance, I realize that I'm never going to win a marathon. I like to run but I'm getting older now and I know I will never set records for speed or endurance, so I focus most of my energies in life on other things. I focus on getting meaningful results.

There comes a point when focusing only on things where you have demonstrated ability and success becomes limiting. When you are cruising along in comfort it's easy to forget that what makes successful people successful is that they also love to do things they are not good at.

This reality has been examined in the new book by Megan McArdle, "The Up Side of Down: Why Failing Well is the Key to Success." In the book, the author discusses the findings of psychologist, Carol Dweck, an expert in the psychology of motivation. Dweck came to realize that there are people who had a "growth mindset" as opposed to what she called a "fixed mindset." McArdle writes:

"While many of the people she studied hated tasks that they didn't do well, some people thrived under the challenge. They positively relished things they weren't very good at—for precisely the reason that they should have: when they were failing, they were learning.

Dweck puzzled over what it was that made these people so different from their peers. It hit her one day ... the people who dislike challenges think that talent is a fixed thing that you're either born with or not. The people who relish them think that it's something you can nourish by doing stuff you're not good at."

This insight corresponds with my observations throughout my years in the dental industry. Those dentists who get stuck in a rut are usually the ones who are reluctant to explore much beyond the boundaries of what they know.

There are dentists who take great pride in their clinical abilities but they just assume that they're not suited for "people skills" or managing a team so they leave that to an office manager instead of approaching leadership as a another skill to refine. Then there are dentists who are comfortable doing "meat and potatoes" dentistry and don't want to venture into the challenges that come with performing more complex cases.

The clinicians who achieve the highest levels of success are often thought of as just being more naturally talented, but it's usually a matter of them being more open to failure. These dentists know what they are good at it; what drives them is a desire to explore what they are not good at—yet. This is where the next level of success awaits.