I’m not quite sure what it is about American culture that is so insistent on only shining the spotlight on the “overnight successes.”
American culture loves the “overnight success” story.
Oh, isn’t it amazing how this person did this or that in such a short period of time?
Only half the story is told when only the success side of the story is reported.
Myron Golden was once applauded for being an “overnight success.”
Myron responded by saying, “Yes, I was an overnight success. It was a fourteen year night.”
When I was in high school, I saw a poster of Michael Jordan with the following quote.
“I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career.
I’ve lost almost 300 games.
Twenty-six times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed.
I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life.
And that is why I succeed.”
This quote by Michael Jordan inspired me to rethink my viewpoint of failure.
I wish that I would have embraced failure earlier in my life.
Or maybe I’m not giving myself enough credit.
Maybe I do not recognize my willingness to persist until I succeed.
More often than not, in the past, I haven’t given myself the credit I deserved.
For much of my life, I believed I had to be perfect.
This false and unhealthy message came from a number of sources that shall remain unnamed.
However, this message rang through my head for much of my life.
I am a very analytical person, and in the past, my fear of failure manifested itself in perfectionism.
My desire to be perfect in many instances halted my progress and led to me missing opportunities.
As I’ve been building out my newest business, Ideal Money Life, I’ve stumbled more than I thought I would.
It’s been humbling and painful in a way I didn’t think was possible.
Over the last six months, I’ve dedicated untold numbers of hours as I’ve built out the business model and developed my marketing strategy.
I’ve cried numerous times as I’ve faced some fears I didn’t even know existed.
I’ve tested numerous things and failed to accomplish my initial objectives.
It’s taken me longer to reach some of my goals than I’d planned.
I’ve had some failed product launches.
Each of these experiences has taught me important lessons.
As painful as it was to go through the failures of the last few months, I’m grateful for the lessons these failures have taught me.
In the past, I’ve berated myself countless times because I was not perfect.
Nobody has been more abusive towards me than the man in the mirror.
When I failed to meet unreasonable perfectionistic expectations I placed on myself, I piled scathing rebukes upon my head.
I was mercilessly cruel to myself.
Failure is not something to be avoided.
Failure is something that should be embraced.
If I’m not failing on a daily basis, then I’m not trying hard enough.
Lack of failure is a clear indication I’m trying to live in a comfort zone, which should really be renamed a prison zone.
Staying within the comfort zone is the surest path to a mediocre life.
Living a mediocre life is for suckers.
There can be no winning without losing.
There can be no joy in victory without the stinging pain of defeat.
I’ve been working to reframe the way I view failure.
As I’ve looked back to the life I’ve built, I’ve reviewed my successes.
As I’ve thought more about those successes, I’ve realized the seeds of those successes were all born in one of my failures.
It wasn’t until I went through the failure that I learned what I needed to learn to build success in my life.
I’ve been a business owner for more than 19 years now.
Today I made a list of my top 30 failures that I’ve had in business.
In the next thirty days, I’ll be sharing with you in vivid detail each of those failures and the lesson that I learned from those failures.
I’m sharing these stories for two reasons.
1. I want to reinforce in my mind, body, and soul that failure is the path to my success. I want to embrace failure more than I do now.
2. I want to provide some inspiration to you that everything will be ok. It’s desirable to fail. Life is about trying something new and discovering what works.
Without the beauty of failure, our lives would be empty.
I’ll end with the wise words of Thomas Edison.
”I haven’t failed. I just found 10,000 ways that didn’t work.”
Recent Comments