Fail Fast, Fail Often. How Losing Can Help You WIN. By Ryan Babineaux, Ph.D., and John Krumboltz, Ph.D.
I saw John Krumboltz speak at Maine Career Development in June (2015) and he and a colleague of his had just come out with this book. As a believer in “all things serendipitous” and that failing is key to trying new things, I NEEDED to have this book.
In order to move forward, we need to take action.
When you take action, occasionally you fail.
Your only other choice is NOT to take action and NOT to move forward.
This is how all animals, (yes human animals), learn.
“A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing”. George Bernard Shaw.
There is so much to like about this book. The quotes at the beginning of each chapter, the challenge to take action, the call to be an innovator and take charge of your life, and all the anecdotal stories to provide the courage to fail…and fail often, in order to learn.
The authors break down the pieces by starting with how to be happy and why this is important in your career development, to how to be curious, “thinking big, acting small”, overcoming paralysis, taking action, and leaning on your community to move forward and take small risks.
I found this a quick read, filled with lots of great thoughts about failing in a positive way, activities you can do to help yourself make some moves, and great advice on taking action in your own career development.
This matches well with my philosophy of using “intentional serendipity” to explore career options. The “intentional” piece is to take action and the “serendipity” piece is to be open to new opportunities.
I highly recommend this book to career practitioners and to the general public as a way to reframe your thinking on your career and your next career move.
Intentional Serendipity Can Be Surprising blog
Jim Peacock is the Principal at Peak-Careers Consulting and writes a monthly newsletter for career practitioners. Peak-Careers offers discussion-based online seminars for career practitioners focused on meeting continuing education needs for GCDF and BCC certified professionals as well as workshops for career practitioners and individual career coaching.
Sign up for our monthly newsletter at www.Peak-Careers.com
Leave a Reply