What did we learn…?

Well, its not quite coming home. It’s the morning after the night before and, lets face it if you’re an England fan, you probably woke up to a sense of disappointment that we’re not champions of Europe. When we think about it a little more, we take pride in such an incredible team of young lads who have simply been exemplary on and off the pitch. If we’d been told at the beginning of the tournament that this group of young men would take us all the way to the final, I think most of us would have taken that. But, having got there, we felt very keenly for the team, especially those who stepped up to take a penalty but didn’t find the back of the net.

No doubt they will learn a lot from this, hopefully to build on their successes for future tournaments but what can we learn? I know from first-hand experience that setting your career goals is really important but in gaining some wins, everyone is also going to experience some form of failure. We will all miss that penalty at some stage or other, its how we deal with it matters.

Dreams are important, but its never a straightforward path in achieving them. There’s always going to be setbacks and it’s important for us to learn how to fail, how to learn from those failures and how to use them to move on. As Elizabeth Day (author and podcaster of How To Fail) says, ‘Every setback is a set-up for a comeback’.

In recruitment, we applaud the success stories, those who reach their goals and achieve their dreams, but we also have to acknowledge the failures. Going through the process of getting a new job can be nerve wracking, it can take time, require patience, and sometimes nerves of steel. The outcome won’t always go your way, you may fall at the very last hurdle, not quite get the ball in the back of the net but you know what, that’s ok. Once you’ve got over the undoubted disappointment, have a think about it, what can you learn, what adjustments you need to make and then go again. Failure is not a barrier to your success, it’s a steppingstone.