That is a big question. My answer is yes because the biggest failure is never attempting. I have many people who ask me, how did you figure out how to work with wood, or weld, or work on the car, or these days - turn things on a lathe or mill? My answer is that I just started reading on it and then doing it and when one way did not work, do another. Some of my friends say, well of course you can do things, you have all those tools. They never realized the need preceded the tools and I rarely have ever bought a new tool. I am like most here, I search and search for the right tool at the right price. Usually, after I buy it - no matter how cheaply - I see the same item much cheaper within the week.
Someone said you learn nothing from success. Maybe. If you lose a patient, is that a learning experience or a failure? In this realm, if I mess up a rare piece of wood or an expensive metal, does it matter if I learned?
I just took an ugly hospital bed and remade it in to a nice piece of furniture for her bedroom and maintained the important parts, electrics, height adjustment, etc. It took 3 days to figure out/make the headboard and while the footboard was the same, it only took two hours. Were the first 3 days I spent, with all the mistakes and waste, a failure? Yes and no. The end result is acceptable to me and I get many compliments but I know every error in the build so I say thank you graciously to the compliments and sit on my desire to point out my errors in the build.
Certainly a failure occurs if you miss a deadline. That can translate to a personal failure depending on the repercussions to the business.
Sometimes the heart fails, the liver, the kidneys, the lungs, the brain, and so on. Is that failure or life?
Concluding, I have and will fail, one day my body will fail but so long as I can think and use my hands, I will always be tinkering and it is the successes that brighten the way.
