Most people are not successful. Not exactly a secret but something that I think upon further examination can tell us much. Most people are average, again, by definition this isn’t really a revelation. Yet again, if we take the time to dissect this simple sentence I think we can find great wisdom that could be life changing, if we apply it to our day to day lives.
But what am I talking about? It’s no secret that most people are not successful, that most people are average. So how on earth could this help you change your life in a radical way? So, first off you have to decide, do you want to be average? If you’re reading this site then I already know the answer to that is a resounding ‘no’, and yet we all do things that are guaranteed to make us average.
Like what?
We follow the masses. We don’t want to be average and yet we do what most people do. That makes no sense. To become above average, to become more, to not live a life of “quiet desperation”, though more and more the desperation is becoming less quiet, we have to do things differently from the masses.
Yet none of us want to be crazy either. So it’s a balancing act that requires some wisdom and forethought. How do we separate what the masses do from what the successful do, without becoming mad men in the process? To me the best place to start and one of the biggest things that separates the successful from the unsuccessful is this.
Failing, failing hard, and failing fast.
But what do I mean by this?
The Secret Of Success If Failure?
One thing that separates those that make it, doesn’t matter what field, is that they are not afraid of failure. This doesn’t mean that they are foolish, don’t study, or take unneeded risks. Simply that they understand failure is part of the process of learning and without failure there is little to no learning. You have to take risks, and by taking risks you will fail from time to time, very often at the start.
This is inevitable. However, as I mentioned, this is also the most essential part of the learning process. Whenever you take a risk, at some point, you will get feedback from the risk taken. You will either succeed or fail. If you succeed then your hypothesis, your risk, was correct and you can go forward.
But when you fail, you have to break it down and see why. And from this you can learn. And learning and making use of that learning is what separates the successful from the unsuccessful. You can’t be afraid of failure, because failure is valuable feedback. Failure is what tells you when you’re doing something a little bit off or wrong. Failure is the greatest aid to learning that there is.
Sure sometimes you’ll bruise your ego but you can’t let your ego get in the way of progress and advancement. You can’t let your ego get in the way of you growing as a person in the various facets of your life. You have to fail forward. The more you stretch and try new things and the more you get feedback on and fail at those things, the faster that you’ll learn.
Hence the axion. Fail fast, fail hard, and fail often. Again this doesn’t mean be foolish or don’t do your research. You should always put thought into whatever you do. The problem is when people formulate hypothesis about what will work or what will not but then never follow through to see what actually works and what actually doesn’t in the real world. Action creates results.
Failure is not negative. It is an opportunity. An opportunity for advancement. And why would you fear an opportunity for advancement? In many respects failure can be and often is, a gift.
To Fail Is To Eventually Succeed
So go out there and fail, regardless of what it is. The road to success is paved with the cobbles of failure. Failure is something that should be embraced. Not sought out of course, you should always try to succeed, but when you inevitably fail, understand that it’s not a bad thing. It’s a good thing and required to ever be a success. To beat yourself up when you fail doesn’t make any sense. It’s learning, it’s part of the process.
Fail, fail, fail, and then fail so more. So that when you do get to a point when it matters, you’ve failed enough that you’ll be able to succeed. Look at it like this. A fighter when prepping for a fight wants training partners that are going to push him. Let’s use MMA as an example. He wants partners that will be able to submit him, out strike him, take him down, stuff his takedowns, and so on and so forth.
During the camp leading up he wants to fail, fail, fail, and fail some more. But why? So that when he gets to the cage and fights an actually opponent, he won’t fail, but rather he’ll succeed. And why will he succeed? Because he’s failed so much in training. Sort of like the more you sweat in practice the less you bleed in war sort of thing.
Again to fail is to eventually succeed.
You Know What To Do…Now Do It
Go out and fail. Form a hypothesis whether in business, health, relationships, your chosen sport, or whatever else and then go out and test that hypothesis and then use the feedback to adjust and try again. And keep doing this, again and again and again. Day in and day out…for years.
That’s the path to success and a life of meaning. Adapt it, use it, and learn from it. And be changed forever by it.
If you have any questions you would like to see answered in a future post send them to me at charlessledge001 (at) gmail (dot) com. If you found value in this post then I would encourage you to share this site with someone who may need it as well as check out my books here. I appreciate it.
-Charles Sledge
