What is "failure" to you?

I was once having a random discussion with my PhD supervisor (I prefer to call him my mentor), when he threw me this question, "What is failure?"

That's a deep question. What IS failure? The Marriam-Webster dictionary defines it as "falling short (of intended objective)". When have we failed? When do we consider ourselves a failure? When do we feel like failures? When do others think of us as failures?

As a scientist, I get 'failed experiments' all the time. Amongst what I used to consider 'failed' experiments, were actually 'negative' data that were opposite to what I had expected or hoped for. These, my mentors used to tell me, were not bad. Negative data is still data, they told me. And they helped to build the puzzle we were trying to solve. Learning to embrace negative data was a tough road. Not just because they are counter-intuitive, but also because negative data is still not widely accepted for publications -- something that is needed for a scientist's career to progress.

Regardless, I did not embrace "failure". Falling short of my own high expectations, and comparing with my genius peers who were all stars in their respective fields, was not helping. Being trained to be critical of everything around me and of myself, I seemed to be "failing" all the time.

It wasn't until I met a whole network of entrepreneurs in the Silicon Valley, that my perspective began to change. 99% of start-ups fail, but everyone in Silicon Valley still wants to start a new company, or work for a start-up. Nobody cared that most start-ups don't succeed. People here embraced failures. In fact, they were proud to have failed. Failure was not something negative, on the contrary, it's something great! Chip Conley (founder of Joie de Vivre hotels) calls these, "noble experiments".

I remember my mentor ending our discussion, commenting that everyone fails at some point of their life. The question is, when? The earlier you experience failure, and learn to get back up, the greater your chances are at success in the future. If you've always been successful all your life, and one day stumble into failure from a high point, it's going to be painful, and very difficult to climb back. So don't be afraid of failing. Embrace them!