Failure Is the Foundation

I lived in Japan for twenty-two years.

Long enough to understand that failure there is not treated as a verdict.

It is treated as data.

You don’t dramatize it.
You don’t run from it.
You bow your head, examine the mistake, and quietly correct the system that allowed it to happen.

That way of thinking never leaves you.

This week, I was reminded of that.

At work, my team and I made commitments to leadership based on contingency plans we were actively building.

Those plans depended on verbal commitments from a vendor.
The timing was tight.
The holidays complicated things.
Before contracts were finalized, those resources were placed on another engagement.

No contract.
No resources.
Commitments already made.

On the surface, it looked like failure.

And many people would have stopped there.

Blame.
Frustration.
Excuses.
Silence.
Stress (That was me, borderline freaked out).

That’s not how I was trained to think.

In Japan, failure is not always emotional.

It can often be procedural.

There’s a reason concepts like kaizen (改善) exist.
Continuous improvement assumes one thing upfront: Things will break.

What matters is how you respond.

You don’t quit.
You don’t complain (maybe a little on a bad day).
You adjust.

So that’s what I did.

I stayed calm (mostly, it was a bad week).
I kept moving.
I contacted additional vendors.
I pushed conversations late into Friday afternoon.
I treated the problem as solvable—not personal.

By the end of the week, I had a commitment from another vendor with the resources required to meet leadership expectations.
We’ll close next week.

The failure didn’t disappear.
It taught.

When failure happens, you really need to think about your systems.

Failure is the "Beginning of Better Systems."

Most people take failure personally.

In Japan, failure is taken seriously—but not always emotionally.

That distinction matters.

Here’s what this situation exposed.

Verbal agreements rely on trust.
Systems rely on structure.

Lesson:
If the outcome matters, goodwill is not enough.

What Japan Taught Me:
If it isn’t written, reviewed, and confirmed, it doesn’t exist.

Adjustment:

Hope and good conversations are not a control mechanism.

In Japan, redundancy isn’t a waste.
It’s respect for reality.

Lesson:
If one failure can stop progress, the system is weak.

Adjustment:

Resilience is designed, not wished for.
I knew I needed two vendors, but everything was so busy, we just did not get it done.

My team's failure this past week wasn’t laziness.
It wasn’t incompetence.

It was a gap.

Lesson:
Discipline lives between assumption and verification.

Adjustment:

In Japan, precision is a form of respect.
The team and I should have been more disciplined in our approach.

Ask “What Failed?”
To be honest, my head first went to "Who failed?"
We are all human; the point is not to stay there too long.
That is an unproductive place to be.
There are no solutions in the blame game.

This is where most people get it wrong.

They attach failure to identity.

Japan often separates the person from the process.

Lesson:
You are not a failure.
The system is.

Fix the system.

Most people say:
“I failed.”

This is where you have to reframe failure into opportunity.

A Day Warrior asks:
“What did this teach me?”

The reframe-mindset is not motivational.
It’s practical.

Japan doesn’t celebrate loud wins.
It respects quiet mastery.

This is where we should all focus if we are looking to become better versions of ourselves.

Failure is part of the path.
Adjustment is the work.
Consistency is everything.

Which brings us to another Japanese saying I love.
(Check out the newsletter: The Power of Perseverance).

継続は力なり
(Keizoku wa chikara nari)
Continuance is power.

This week didn’t derail my momentum.
(Even though it did feel derailed for a moment).
It refined it.

Failure didn’t weaken the mission.
It strengthened the system.

Study it.
Adjust.
Move forward.

That’s how progress is made.

The Day Warrior

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