failure is inevitable what we do with failure is where we derive our agency we're talking about failure on today's episode of developer team my name is jonathan cuttrell my goal on this show is to help driven developers like you find clarity perspective and purpose in their careers, and failure is a linchpin for everyone's success. There is a possibility that you will succeed by accident. There is a possibility that you will succeed the first time you try something. It's unlikely, but it is possible. This unlikely event of immediate success is the kind of romantic story that we have about our work lives, that we will try something, succeed, and then continue that cycle over and over. A life full of success. The truth is, identifying when you have succeeded versus when you have failed is a very important thing. It's a very important thing. It's a very important thing. It's a difficult process. Where do you draw the line between success and failure? And when do you know when to take that success and failure forward? Failure will be a part of your career. It'll be a part of your life. And so, instead of subscribing to this romantic notion that failure is outside of the realm of success, it's a process. It's a process. It's a process. It's a process. It's a process. It's a process. It's a process. It's a process.ijijijijijijijijijijijijijij we're going to talk about that opportunity. What opportunity does failure provide? Understanding that the romantic notion of serial success and a perfect record of success, this idea that failure is only reserved for people who are not able to succeed, or that failure is somehow directly correlated with your intelligence or your grit, your attitude, your ability, your skill, your talent. Somehow your worth is correlated with your failures is just patently untrue. And very often the people who do succeed, succeed on the back of their failures. Failures are an opportunity. I want to talk to you more about that opportunity today. But first, I want to talk to you about a brand new sponsor, Gunn.io. Today's episode is sponsored by Gunn.io. Gunn.io connects independent software professionals with exceptional clients for dependable, fulfilling, fairly paid remote work. If you work in technology, chances are you've considered striking out on your own and opening up your own freelance or consulting shop. Contract work does offer more autonomy over your workday, and it's a great way to gain experience in new industries and even build your portfolio. But often becoming a freelance developer means you have to become a bill collector, a marketer, a salesperson, an administrative assistant. And frankly, none of us have time for all of those jobs. It's hard enough to get clients in the first place. If you're looking for freelance or full-time work without all of that extra overhead, go check out Gunn.io. The team at Gunn.io personally vets each client on the platform and pitches you to expertly matched projects when you're open to new work. You can get full support from the team on client interviews and let Gunn.io handle contracts, invoicing, and getting you paid on time. It's freelancing without the overhead and risk with a platform partner. Who knows you by name? Apply to join today at Gunn.io slash T. That's Gunn.io slash T-E-A. Thanks again to Gunn.io for sponsoring today's episode of Developer Tea. So we're talking about failure, and more specifically, I mentioned that failure gives you an opportunity. Very often, the unhealthy way of doing things is to fail. And that's what Gunn.io does. The way that we deal with failure is we try to find blame. We don't call it that, but we try to understand where we went wrong. And if we can't assign it to ourselves, it is even more comfortable to turn around and assign it to someone else. This shifts the blame off of us and allows us to maintain that romantic false-naturedness. When we shift the blame of failure onto an external situation or person, the hypothesis that we're basing this on is that we did everything we could. We did everything we should to succeed. We lose the opportunity, and we're going to talk about that opportunity now. Failure provides you the opportunity to succeed. The opportunity to take responsibility. Failure provides you the opportunity to take responsibility. Now, I want to be very clear about something. I want to draw a very clear, bright line between responsibility and blame. Blame assigns some kind of former judgment, some kind of backwards-looking understanding of failure. And I want to draw a very clear, bright line between responsibility andijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijij responsibility is forward-looking. Responsibility is active. When you have the opportunity to take responsibility, you're choosing to respond to your failures. Instead of taking blame and turning that blame into guilt, allowing that blame to fester into issues of self-worth or a sense of constant failure as a person, you take responsibility. When a failure occurs, taking responsibility means I'm going to learn from this failure. I'm going to move forward and do something different. I'm going to adjust something. I'm going to try to investigate what could have gone differently. This doesn't mean that you don't look at your failures with a critical eye. Of course, there are things that we do that are poor judgment or something that we ignored. But looking back and saying, this is somehow attached to you as a person, to your worth, to your ability, to your potential, that is what we don't want to do. Taking responsibility means I'm willing to look at things as they were. I'm willing to revisit this failure. Without allowing it to color my understanding of the opportunity for the future. Taking responsibility after a failure. This is the huge opportunity that can change your career. And if you're a manager, if you're leading other people, recognizing that failures are kind of that birth moment of an opportunity. This is what is so critical about understanding failure through a lens of positivity, through a lens of self-worth, through a lens of this being kind of a springboard. And this isn't just a new craze, a new way of thinking about failure that makes it softer or easier to deal with. This is fundamentally the process of learning and what is necessary to learn. Failure is a critical moment to take responsibility. Thank you so much for listening to today's episode of Developer Tea. Thank you again to today's sponsor, Gun.io. If you are looking to, maybe you're just wanting to do some side work. Maybe you want to start your whole new kind of solo career as a freelancer. You want to build your own company. Gun.io is going to take off some of that load for you of having to do every job under the sun, you know, being your own everything. And instead, you can focus on the work. Go check it out. Gun.io slash tea. That's G-U-N dot I-O slash T-E-A. I want to take a moment to sincerely thank you for listening to Developer Tea. It's been around for quite some time now. We're approaching a thousand episodes. This show is not going anywhere anytime soon. And you are the reason that we can continue doing this. I'd love to do even more with the show. I'd love to continue to grow the audience, continue to kind of bring these ideas to more and more developers and continue discussing them. And the only way we can do that is if you, take the show and share it with other people. We never market this show. We haven't bought ads. We don't do campaigns for Developer Tea. It is all entirely in your hands whether or not the show continues to exist. So if you enjoy this podcast and you think it's valuable, if you think other people could get value from it, if you think they would enjoy it, please take a moment and share it with them. Another way that you can do this more passively rather than thinking of a specific person is to leave a review. And if you have any questions, please feel free to ask them in the comments. And if you have any questions, please feel free to ask them in the comments. And if you have any questions, please feel free to ask them in the comments. Or in whatever podcast provider you use. Thanks so much for listening. And until next time, enjoy your tea.