Thread by @davidschulman

Day 2 of lessons learned. And today's topic is going to be failure, and why it is important to fail. Many super smart folks have already put relevant information on this topic online, and I'll reference some of it as we go. And today, I'll gif it up a bit. #tweetstorm 1/

Those old enough to remember the scene below are probably also old enough to realize that it just ain't true. We try all the time, and we don't always get there. That's (usually) not a poor effort... that's a fact of life, folks. 2/

Folks today seem less comfortable with failure than in the past. I don't think its a generational thing. I think it is a problem exacerbated by social media. If you spend any meaningful amount of time on social media, you read a ton about what is going well in people's lives. 3/

People post about manuscripts they get published. About positions on extramural committees for which they've been selected. About promotions and tenure and birthdays and vacations and pets and kids and great food. Sharing joy is a wonderful thing. 4/

But most of us find sharing things that don't go well to be awkward and painful. We'll share baking disasters, or maybe when Fido poops on the rug and spreads it around. But we share that because it is funny. These are things that go wrong. But they aren't painful really. 5/

Let's assume that other people fail and succeed as often as we do. But they don't share their failures as often as their successes. This gives us a pretty skewed view of how other people experience life, and makes us feel more sad and anxious when things don't go our way. 6/

As an aside, some of this is quite brilliantly covered in several episodes of The Happiness Lab, a podcast by Yale professor Dr. Laurie Santos. It is well worth a listen for this (and many other reasons). 7/ happinesslab.fm

You know those people who are really successful? The folks who get up on stage at grand rounds and national meetings and such? Those folks have failed, too. They've failed A TON. You just don't see it on their CVs. Or hear it when they're being introduced in public fora. 8/

Want proof? Here's a very abridged list of my own failures:

1) Took 3 tries to get promoted to Associate Professor
2) Had a paper rejected from 4 journals
3) Ran for CHEST Education committee 6 times (might have been 8) before getting a slot (feel free to comment @accpchest)
9/

Wanna see what I was wearing when I accepted an education award from the Emory Department of Medicine? There's a good story there.... 10/

And there's plenty more where that came from. In fact, of all of the presentations I give to Emory medical students, the one that always yields the most emails of thanks from the class is when I spend a good half hour talking about one of my biggest professional failures. 11/

Why? I think it is because it shows learners that, despite multiple failures, most of us get to where we want to be, as long as we don't let those failures shut us down. And that is REALLY HARD. This calls back to the feedback discussion from yesterday.... 12/

Your mission is to neither let your failures crush you ("I'm not good enough.") nor to let them go without consideration ("Those people don't know what they are talking about."). Neither of those responses is an effective way of dealing with rejection. 13/

So when you fail (and you will), remember that all of us fail. Find someone you trust to be honest with you. Share your failure. And listen to what they have to say. Work with them to be better. And then try again. 14/

The need to fail has been written about a lot. One of my favorite things to read (again and again) on this topic is below. It isn't science-y, but it seems to hit home, at least for me. 15/
outsideonline.com/2400888/life-u…

As an aside, I think the brilliant Dr. @jenheemstra, Associate Professor of Chemistry at Emory, turned me on to this reference originally. She writes often and wisely on this topic. If you don't already follow her, I recommend that you strongly consider it. 16/

That's enough for today. In sum:

1) It is not only OK to fail, it is IMPORTANT to fail.
2) Learn from your failures, but don't let them beat you up.
3) Find trusted advisors to help you with #2.
4) Don't stop trying. The most successful people rarely do.

17/
#schulmanout