“We are all failures—at least the best of us.”
– J. M. BARRIE, quoted in Eleven Rings by Phil Jackson
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“The formula for success is quite simple: double your rate of failure.”
– Thomas J. Watson, Sr. (founder of IBM), quoted in The Slight Edge by Jeff Olson
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We learn more from failures.
Young and successful people can be galling. It’s hard to learn much from youthful success.
The edge for us older guys is our deeper experience of failures.
But it is hard to share how we have messed up. It provokes the ego. But it’s what gives ageing meaning. The accumulation of lessons from failure.
It’s important to take advice in context.
For example, taking life advice from a personal trainer is listening to someone who has one area of their life figured out.
It’s easy for them to lead by example and spout wisdom on health and fitness because it’s what they’ve chosen to focus on.
They have one human behaviour under control.
Advice can be beneficial, but words are easy to type. Dig a little deeper – what actions and experiences formed those words?
I failed at making a living as a personal trainer. It was ignorance of running a business rather than lack of knowledge that caused that failure.
I was too narrowly focused. I was of the naive school of, ‘If you build it, they will come.’
I forgot all my experience from a previous career in sales. I failed to sell myself, failed to differentiate my services and did too little prospecting.
In summary, I failed because of complacency.
The people who deserve to succeed are those that work hardest and smartest.
Working hard, by itself, can keep you employed and able to pay the bills.
What I am still trying to figure out is how to work smart.
Perhaps I should start by trying to learn from my accumulated failures.
How many more attempts at success do I have?
I suppose as many times as I can pick myself up, dust myself off, and have another go.
Conversations With Quotations 