Far from being a disaster, failure can be a useful learning experience

Sometimes, you just have to accept you were wrong.

Unfortunately there are times when what originally seemed like a great idea just did not work in practice. So how should you deal with failure?

To begin with, the emotional backlash must be overcome, and the situation looked at objectively. You might feel discouraged, but this does not mean you have to lose the passion that motivated you to think creatively and implement your ideas in the first place. Any failure is an opportunity for learning and growth, if it is handled constructively.

With sufficient determination, a failure could become the first step on a longer journey leading to success. The life and work of Florence Nightingale offers excellent examples of this.

When she was