Main Idea
What is your view of someone who has declared bankruptcy? Or someone who has flunked a test? Have you tried selling a great idea to one person and then another and then another and no one wants to buy? How many sports teams go into a prevent defense when they are winning and go on to lose because they are afraid to take any risks? On the other hand, do you know people who never fail because they are safe in their own world?
Expansion of Idea
I heard a speaker recently comment that failure is a necessity. This guy has built a large multi-site church and is tremendously successful. I thought the comments were a little odd. However, the more I thought about it, the more I agreed. I thought about my own public speaking which does not come naturally to me. In the sixth grade my parents pushed me to join the speech club. I was reluctant but I memorized the speech and went to the meet. Suffice it to say, I had a bad experience.
That stuck with me until about 8 years ago. I was making some changes in my accounting practice and had an opportunity to do a seminar that I really thought would help clients. Suffice it to say that I was terrified of doing the seminar. Yet I was excited because I knew I needed to do it and it provided some great business opportunities. Because of the failure when I was 11, which I will not forgive my parents for, I knew I needed to really prepare for the seminar. The seminar was a turn key program that did not need a lot of preparation. I prepared anyway. I focused on areas that I was passionate about. The failure drove my actions in a way to ensure that the future public speaking was successful. This is an area that I will always have to work on, but I know how to overcome those limitations and succeed.
We are all afraid of failure but we should be more afraid of never trying anything new. As Thomas Edison said after failing 10,000 times to invent the light bulb, “I did not fail, I just learned 10,000 ways not to design the light bulb.”
Suggested Areas to Start
List a few failures in your business or life
Make a note about what you learned
List one thing that you are currently afraid to do but you know you should do
Discuss this with your boss, coworker, spouse or other adviser and determine how to approach the problem