Failing Forward.

John C. Maxwell.

Reviewed by Johnathan C. Despain—University of Wyoming.

Dr. Maxwell is a well known author of various books on successful leadership including his most well-known book The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership. This latest endeavor relates failures to perspective in the ever engaged efforts of developing leadership attributes in ones' self. He attempts to establish the main difference between those that succeed in life and those that are "average" to overcoming obstacles.

From his viewpoint, he identifies and defines failures and success differently and hopes to enable a reader to view in their lives many different aspects that the "average" person would identify with as being failures and the successes that were achieved by overcoming tragedy, loss, impairment, etc. in their lives. He uses many different analogies and life stories as examples to make points in how these individuals perceived the obstacles and were internally motivated to triumph over them.

One thing that I did find very interesting was his analysis of a fear cycle that all of us have and how we manage fear individually. He discusses how failures and fear go hand-in-hand and that understanding the fear cycle can help a person to manage failures and view them as an outcome, but not necessarily internalized by a person as being the cause. The model is that prior negative experiences in whatever area cause a fear of failure. I want to quote his example as I felt it was a fantastically referenced: "For example, let's say someone experienced failure as a child trying to sell candy door-to-door to raise money for school. Later as an adult, he is put in a situation that seems similar, and fear strikes. Whether he is a salesperson with a need to make calls on customers or a pastor with a mission to visit people in their homes, that old childhood failure may generate fear. The fear of rejection creates inaction. Because the person doesn't act, he doesn't gain personal experience in that situation--- which is the key to learning and overcoming future obstacles. The lack of experience breeds inability to handle similar situations. And that ultimately feeds and increases fear."

I found this enlightening in relation to working in the youth development sector. How important those successes as a youth are in helping to limit the effects of failures later on in life as an adult. Dr. Maxwell actually continues to discuss different ways that people react to this cycle including paralysis, procrastination, and purposelessness. Not bad reading to this point.

The subsequent chapters address three more areas including changing your mind set to accept that failures happen and are an actual thing, embracing failure and making it your friend (fat chance), and increasing your odds of success. Dr. Maxwell makes the point that a person needs look at the failure as an item and not assign blame. One chapter entitled "Get over yourself—everyone else has" is particularly good. He really reinforces the concepts of not taking life too seriously and using laughter as mechanisms to help manage failures, obstacles, and fear.

I found the reading to be rather easy and enjoyable. John uses many short stories to illustrate his points that coincidentally are all success stories. I felt like it over simplified some issues that are hard to deal with in the moment or incident of failure and that he made it close to a self-help type book. Great information. If you like short stories as examples, lots of them, then you'll enjoy this book.