With the right mindset, failure is the world’s greatest catalyst for success.
By Roddy Ward
In my previous article, “Own Your Journey”, I suggested that taking ownership led to Canadian biathletes Rosanna Crawford’s and Nathan Smith’s greatest successes on the international biathlon circuit. While I stand by that truth, there are, of course, other ingredients. One important ingredient is failure. Both athletes had a significant failure (in their minds) during their career, were angry about it, and channeled that energy into a surge in performance. The energy failure brings is enormous. Our goal should be to harness that energy in a positive direction towards improvement. We must capitalize on it.
Rosanna Crawford’s failure was not making the 2012 Canadian World Biathlon Championships team. Rosanna had been a 2010 Olympian and 2011 World Biathlon Championships team member. Making these teams was always a close call, with Rosanna being selected in the final spot each year. Despite this, Rosanna had the expectation that she would make the 2012 team. However, in 2012, one young athlete rose through the ranks that year and nipped the last 2012 World Championships spot, leaving Rosanna out. That failure, and Rosanna’s reaction to it, was a defining moment in her career. Instead of quitting or sulking, Rosanna decided she did not want to be on the bubble of making or not making teams anymore. Rosanna wanted to be the best in Canada and among the best in the World. In the next 8 months Rosanna completely changed the trajectory of her career, fueled by the energy of that failure. By the following December (2013), Rosanna took her personal best result on the Biathlon World Cup from 55th to 4th, with multiple top 5 results that season.
After a successful 2012 season, Canadian National Team biathlete Nathan Smith had a poor 2013 season. Nathan’s spot on the National Team was in question, though in the end he was named to the team for the following season. At this point Nathan was 28 years old and it would have been easy to retire from biathlon. Nathan wasn’t tracking towards the top of the world results lists and there was a significant gap between him and the best biathletes in the world. Nathan didn’t quit, but he did get mad. I believe somewhat inspired by what Rosanna was able to change the year before, Nathan directed his anger towards changing his trajectory. Nathan became a completely different athlete. He completely owned his successes and failures. He understood that he was the key to achieving his goals, or not. The next season, Nathan posted an 11th place in the pursuit race at the 2014 Olympics, which was a significant improvement from his best world cup result of 38th. In the next 2 seasons, Nathan surprised many people by collecting individual and team medals at the World Championships and World Cup and rising to be the best male athlete on the Canadian team.
The scenarios described above in relation to Nathan and Rosanna easily could have played out in the opposite way without the right mindset. Rosanna and Nathan could have decided they were not good enough and they didn’t have the ability to keep improving. They were getting older, and they could have moved on. They could have believed the top was impossibly far. It would have been easy, even many of those around had lost belief in them. But Rosanna and Nathan didn’t quit, in fact, they both used it as fuel for their fire. Failure can be the greatest motivator on this planet when we have the right mindset.
Failure has a way of working out in the end. In 2010, I spent the better part of a year envisioning and creating the Biathlon Alberta Training Centre (BATC). This is a training centre program in Canmore, Alberta, for biathletes aged 17-25 years old. It’s meant to be a steppingstone from a club to the national team, bringing together likeminded, high performance pathway athletes, all trying to make the jump to the Canadian National Biathlon Team. Prior to the BATC, I housed this type of athlete within the Canmore Nordic Ski Club. I was coaching ~10 of them, plus running the biathlon portion of the club, and all the development programs that go with a grassroot club from ages 9+. I was way too busy. The BATC was the solution in my mind, and the timing was good with a crop of keen athletes ready to go. Once the program was fully created and ready to serve the athletes, the Biathlon Alberta Board of Directors held a hiring competition for the head coach. I stepped aside from the process to apply for the head coach position. Honestly, I felt pretty entitled to the position since it was mostly the athletes I was currently coaching who were joining the program, and I created the damn thing. I did not get the job. A great coach applied for the job, and he was chosen. I was surprised and disappointed, but despite my feelings, I encouraged the athletes I was coaching to join the BATC and I helped transition them.
One door shut; another door opened.
I was disappointed but I did still enjoy coaching the younger club athletes, so I got my head straight quick and carried on coaching with the Canmore Nordic Ski Club. Two months later I was offered a job coaching the Canadian National Biathlon Team. I was very motivated to do a great job and prove wrong those who didn’t hire me at the BATC. I used the failure as motivation to become a better coach. Had I got the BATC coach position, I probably wouldn’t have been offered the coaching position with the National Biathlon Team, and I am certain I would not be the coach I am today. There is no better education than working with national team level athletes.
I spent the next 10 years working with Biathlon Canada, coaching the Canadian Senior National Biathlon Team, where I coached athletes to World Cup and World Championships medals. I also spent some time as the High-Performance Director and the Athlete Development Director. This collection of experiences was very valuable to my development. I am way better off because I failed to get the job I wanted.
It takes the right mindset to turn failure, or perceived injustice, into a positive. In the cases described, there was incredible energy that came from failure. The key was to own the failure and harness the energy towards growth.
My advice now: when you fail, it’s good to be angry (it means you want it!). However, get your head straight ASAP and own it as your own failure. Do not blame others. Do not waste an ounce of that amazing energy dwelling on the negative or complaining endlessly. Instead, get on with directing your energy in a productive way. Use the greatest catalyst for success – failure - to your advantage.
Rosanna Crawford, 2018. Reaction to achieving her first World Cup individual podium place. Years of highs and lows in the making.
