Success requires failure

"Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly."

Robert F. Kennedy

Throughout your life, you will be presented with millions of opportunities to do thousands of different things.  With each opportunity, you will weigh how you feel this opportunity will benefit you in both the short and long term, and also, how much it can hurt you.  What I have found very interesting in life is how these risks are conveyed in our society.

What you are going to find is there is a contradiction between what the world tells you to do, and what they expect you to do.  On one hand, you have someone telling you to take risks and change the world, and on the other hand you have the same people asking you to deliver perfection.

In using a sports example, let's look at quarterbacks in the NFL to see why this is such a contradiction.  These quarterbacks are tasked with winning every game they can, and if they don't they will likely lose their jobs.  What is worse than losing a game? Being the reason that they lost a game.  And what does this instill?  Make as few mistakes as possible. And what does this cause?  Quarterbacks needing to walk on eggshells, "manage games" and essentially never learn to become great.  Why? Because success requires failure and they are being asked to never fail.  Look back on the best quarterbacks that have ever played and tell me how many didn't fail before they succeeded.  In fact, tell me how many teams have won a championship before they had to go through the heartbreak of failure.  Look at the most successful people in the world, regardless of your definition of success and you will find the same correlation. Yes, there are going to be exceptions, but just look at the numbers and you might be surprised at what you see.

I have always been someone who has wanted to learn and better myself in everything that I do.  However, the times that I learn most, the times that I understand how to take good to outstanding, is in opportunities where I could fall flat on my face -- and in some of those cases I have.  But, every time I have picked myself up off the ground, I came out with ten times the experience that I would have had otherwise.

Stop focusing on what negative things might happen, and start concentrating on what positives that could be.  Whether you could fall short or you could succeed past your wildest dreams, I hope you realize that both of those outcomes are a positive, and the only negative would be never trying.

Having said all of this, it is important to understand the difference between seeking out failure and embracing failure when it happens.  My point is, aim to succeed, but don't be afraid to fail.  Create a mindset where picking yourself up after you fall is not a question of if you can do it, but when you can.

Lastly, try to become attune to other people's views on failure.  The reason I say this is because while you will continually hear advice from people telling you to do this, you are going to be placed into situations where someone is going to be falsely looking out for you. 

If you ever find yourself in a position that you feel like you can do a job or task but someone else is afraid that you won't succeed, ask them to do it anyway.  If they will not allow you to step up to bat, then please, really consider if you should be there.  While it might seem that they have your best interest at heart because they don't want to see you fail, really what they are doing is making certain that you will never succeed.  Run from these situations.  If you are scared of the risk, talk to me, I will support you in any way I can (financially or otherwise) to allow you to not be handcuffed to the risks.

Remember, the only way someone can ever determine your success or fate is if you allow them to.  Never give up the decision of your success.