"Why is help so frequently not sought?" That's the question an ExecuNet member, a C-level executive in the manufacturing industry, posed to his peers in one of the business Roundtables. He noted that, in his leadership career, he would have failed countless times had he not asked for help.

"Perhaps part of the culture in this country is that failure is just not an acceptable outcome," wondered the manufacturing executive. "Certainly nobody seeks it, but the irony is that the only way to become experienced and enjoy wisdom in business is to have a healthy mix of successes and failures. We just have to minimize the impact of failure as much as possible and learn to pick it all up and proceed forward again after it does occur."

"It is true that the business culture in the US is mainly of cultivating success and emulating success by empathy (leaders emulating leaders through their life's examples)," added another member, a global IT strategy leader. "Although this brings a lot of positive energy in the organization, it also creates a big vacuum, as people seldom spend time analyzing why they fail, and even less why they won."

Further, learning from your mistakes and analyzing the real reasons why you succeeded are critical to make the success repeatable, he concluded.

Where do you often focus your attention? Reviewing mistakes to avoid making them again? Or analyzing your success so you can replicate it?

While you're thinking that over, here's some more business insight we've collected for you to help you advance in your current role, find a new one, gain expert advice and learn what's happening in the marketplace:

Most popular in November:
Have You Heard the One About the First-Time CEO?
Everyone Needs to Know What’s Going on with the CEO
The Big Amazing/Little Amazing
Executive Recruiters Offer Insights to Compete in our Challenging Economy
7 Truths of Career Success

What you may have missed:
A New Era for Executives
Follow the Leader: Bill George (1 of 2)
Follow the Leader: Tammy Erickson
Is Your New Job as Important as Your Smartphone?
Revising the Jobs Reports

The blog posts that keep on giving:
The Scam Artist All-Star List
Networking Lessons from the Frankenstein Monsters
Bury Bones in Your Own Backyard
It’s Good to Be Quiet Sometimes
Business Secrets Your Kids Won’t Learn in School

Robyn Greenspan
Robyn Greenspan is the Editor-in-Chief at ExecuNet, where she is responsible for setting and driving the editorial content engagement strategy across the private business network's publications and expert-led programming. She is also a Huffington Post blogger. You can follow her on Twitter @RobynGreenspan

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