Failure Analysis: Understanding the Secret of Your Failure

Failure Analysis: Understanding the Secret of Your Failure

(By Abbas Agbaje)

The first time I came across those two words above, my heart almost leapt out of my body. Actually, it is an engineering term used in respect of faulty equipment. Engineers conduct failure analyses on a piece of equipment to fails to work correctly during commissioning exercise or during the operational lifecycle of a machine or tool.

They try to understand what the root causes of the failure are, whether it is as a result of malfunctioning of its parts or through the agency of the handler who, perhaps, carelessly manned the equipment. This process is crucial to understand the best approach to tackle the problem.

A failure log is kept for documenting the history of machine failures and their causes. By doing the failure analysis, the engineer understands whether it is specific parts of the machine that needs to be changed, the condition of operation (power supply and others) that requires an adjustment or the operator needs to be re-trained.

In sum, failure analysis helps to make provisions that prevent future reoccurrence of malfunctioning of a piece of equipment.

Consequently, time, money and lives will be saved by understanding the “what”, “why”, and “how” the machine failed. By the way, this is just a layman explanation.

What does this even mean? How does this matter? It does, and I mean it.

Consider your own life. How many times have you failed at something really important? It could be as insignificant as stuttering in a class when a lecturer asked you a question you did not know, and perhaps don’t know till now! Perhaps, your own experience is a woeful performance at a job interview or missing the deadline of an important opportunity. The list goes on.

Wait a minute! Did you ever do a Failure Analysis?

Look back the past 5 years of your life. How many times have you failed? How many rejection letters or emails have you received? How many courses have you failed to pass excellently in school? Did you miss a first-class by a slight margin? Do you feel terrible that you could have a made a 2:1 just if you had 0.05 point? Do you feel you could have gotten the promotion if you had been more responsible in your job? All these and more are relevant questions to the lives a whole lot of people.

Take some time to find a pattern in your failures. Develop a “failure log” and review it regularly. It will remind you of the moments when you have let a crack into your self-discipline; when you prefer pleasure-seeking moments instead of working on your real purpose in life. Draw out the patterns of horrible habits that have let you down. Now, don’t tell me you were not at fault. Don’t try to absolve yourself of the responsibility to own your mistakes. Accept them, learn from them and build on them.

Personally, I wondered why it is necessary to analyse one’s embarrassing moments in life. Truly, you don’t want to remember those messy moments. You don’t want to relive some memories. But you probably have not learnt anything from those failures if you don’t dig deep into WHY and HOW you failed. In the end, you will know the kind of people to move close to and those to avoid; and places to be and to avoid. Failure analysis set you on the path to your purpose with a new kind of thinking that what had been your past obstacles will be the bridge to the pinnacles of success.

Henry Ford notes:

Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently”

You can only begin again or try something more daunting in an intelligent manner only if you have discovered the Secret of Your Failure.

Closing Remark:

“You may need to analyse your failures in order to realise your fortunes” Abbas Agbaje