The word that doesn’t exist.

Since being a student at University, particularly in Enterprise classes, I became aware of the saying, ‘There is no such thing as failure, there is only feedback.’ I remember being excited by two things:

• Firstly, not only can we assign specific meanings to words, but we can change our perceptions and associations of them; and
  
• Secondly, we can refuse to acknowledge their existence, completely.

As a consequence, whenever someone mentions the word, ‘failure’, it becomes natural to wonder about the experience they’ve had, the lesson learnt, not the abject misery of someone who hasn’t been able to achieve what they set out to do. It’s not about dwelling on the negative experience, but on the positive, i.e., perhaps there is another way that can better serve the purpose, aim or goal.
About the same time, at University, I came across, read and re-read, Unlimited Power by Anthony Robbins, in which he states:

“There is no such thing as failure, there are only results. If it's not the one you desire, change your course of action and try again. Then you'll produce another result.”

Anthony Robbins

With no particularly strong meaning attached to the word, and through neglecting to acknowledge it, the word itself becomes foreign. I am amazed when I hear other people use it to describe something that didn’t work out, because it’s really an opportunity to employ a different way of doing, or a different way of seeing, of hearing, or feeling.

Some other ways to communicate that everything may not be perfect:
damp squib An enterprise that was to have been a great success, but fizzled out
lay an egg To flop or bomb, especially when performing before an audience
back to the drawing board. A similar phrase is back to square one, by analogy to a games board. Its meaning is the same—“We’ve got to start all over, from the very beginning.”
go up in smoke To come to naught, to be wasted or futile; to be unsuccessful
lemon An object of inferior quality; a dud; something that does not meet expectations

And now that the option for failure has been taken away,  it brings me to another of my favourite phrases to live by:

Feel the fear and do it anyway.