During our development program, we had a C-level executive come to discuss leadership with our class. He made it clear that when it comes to success, the failures we endure are just as important as the wins, and failing is essential to being a great leader. He told us that if we hadn’t experienced a big failure in our lives, one would be coming soon. He was right on.

A fear of failure spans every generation. Not too surprisingly, many have said that millennials do not know what do with failure. For many of us this is completely true, because we haven’t had much experience with it. Most of our parents saw to it that we were on teams whose mottos were “everybody wins” which is precisely why I have a box full of “participant” ribbons (I just wanted to be on the team…). We have seen mainly positive or neutral feedback thus far. It is when we get out in the corporate arena that the potential for failure begins to mount.