I read an excellent post from Guy Kawasaki's blog, How to change the world. The post was an interview with Jerry White, the co-founder of Survivor Corps.  The interview focused on the art of survival. How do you go on after a tragedy, how do you move away from that event?

It made me think about the aura that failure can give you. When you project fails, you can surrender to the failure or move on, determined to make the next project a success. You can also choose to become a victim of that failure, a let it taint the next project with defeatism.

So, let's apply Jerry's recipe for surviving a failed project. 

Face facts.

The project has failed. There is nothing that can be done about it now. Don't try to blame circumstances or other people or anything that takes the failure away from you. You may not be the sole architect of that failure, but finding reasons to escape responsibility is not the way to go.

Choose life, not death.

Jerry talks about creating options for a positive future. Once you've accepted the failure of the previous project, don't let it slow you down. Let go of that failure and move forward.

Reach out.

Maybe you need to learn some new skills for project management? Maybe you need to improve how you manage your team, or how you manage expectations, or simply how you manage your time. Training sessions can only help you improve yourself, if only by giving you a confidence boost. Getting a mentor or a life coach can be beneficial too.

Get moving.

Get your hands on a new project. See it as an opportunity to start fresh. You can apply what you learned in your training or mentoring sessions. Most of all, working on a new project will motivate you. It will change your outlook, from being the one whose project just failed, to being the one whose new project will succeed.

Give back.

You're not only one who's failed before. When someone else has a failure on their score sheet, don't turn your back on them. You can become their mentor. You can offer them some guidance to move away from the failure and become better at project management. 

My take on it: it's about looking ahead

Recovering from a failure requires that you look ahead of you. You can't move forward when you're always revisiting the past. And if you're constantly thinking of that past failure, other people will see that in you too. The aura of failure is not put on you by the others around them, you're the one keeping it there.

Focus on how good you can be.