How Failure Fuels Success

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Failing at 2X is too low a rate. You need to fail 5X to 10X at it first before success hits. Nature has this concept down pat. All you need to do is look in the mirror or look at your pet cat, dog or fish.

How many sperms are released on average in order to successfully fertilize one egg? Take a guess!

Not dozens, not hundreds but millions and billions! This is easier to write than it is to live honestly. Writing and researching this article has made me realize that all those movers and shakers in our world have 3-digit or more fail rates. Those guys embraced failure or at least powered on forward and didn’t choke and stall due to it.

You are who you are right now. Does it stop you from dreaming? No. Where you are right now in life is only one stage of many. Time never stops moving forward and neither do you. The stage in life you are in now is not forever. It is only for a season. You have to start training for when the season shifts and changes. And it will.

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Failing to hit a homerun or a for six your first few times up to bat is normal. Heck, if you have been playing for years and have been up to bat for hundreds of times then maybe you would have punted one straight out of the field. That’s only AFTER hundreds of poor hits, misses, and then you got better at gauging the angle of the ball, where to place your feet, how to twist and connect. After hundreds of hours of practice, muscle memory kicks in. Just to be consistent and take one baby step at a time. The important thing is that you keep moving forward! Remember overnight success stories are years in the making.

So start training. Find resources. Find coaches. Find teammates.

Nothing exists in a vacuum, even in the emptiest of space there’s still quantum particles. All this is to say all the social media clips you see about being a solo success is pure fiction. All the successful solopreneurs have teams.

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🔶Want to write better articles?
This means writing more stuff. Write more different styles of stuff. Read better stuff. Read more diverse stuff. Who knows what two different styles you can pull together to make your own unique voice?

🔶Want to have a larger social network?
Start commenting on larger social media accounts you admire and follow. Slapping the like button is not commenting. Drop something thoughtful or reply to another’s comment.

🔶Want to have more friends that are where you want to be? 
Start reaching out. This is an age where most people have a cyber footprint. Anyone can be a sleuth. Dig a bit on Google and you can reach just about anyone. Building a network with gentler, yet effective methods, explore this guide on softer ways to establish professional connections.

🔶Want to have higher view count? 
Start posting the same video but with slightly different tweaks on different accounts. Then check to see what failed and what didn’t. One video but 4 or 5 iterations. 

It’s like making a bowl of instant noodles. Serve just plain. Serve with a bit of green onions. Serve it spicy. Serve it spicy with green onion garnish. You get the idea. The base is the control, tweak the variations with slight changes. Fail faster. Win more.

🔶Want to join the operator economy? 
Lots of options here besides starting a business from scratch. Just like wanting to eat fancy cupcakes. 

You can bake a batch from scratch then add fancy icing. Or you can buy store bought cupcakes and add the fancy icing. You still end up with fancy looking cupcakes. 

There are options out there. You can buy an existing business and not have to start one from the ground up. Yes, this is not only for people with millions to slap as a down payment. Time to learn more about how to structure a deal. Google Codie Sanchez and chase that rabbit hole to it’s conclusion. You’re welcome 😁

Nature and the world around us knows that failure is a given in life. So, fail more. The more you fail, the more you learn and those rare successes start accumulating. The point is to LEARN a tiny bit from each failure. Congrats to those who can learn a lot from each failed attempt. Just remember if you fail but don’t learn. Slap yourself. You HAVE to emerge from the failure pile with something learned grasp in your fist.

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Embracing Failure In Contemporary Times – Part 1

Check out these businesses. Can you guess how many times their founders flamed out, got reject, or got laughed out of the room before hitting it big time?

Dyson

Dyson started with a problem – clogged vacuum cleaners losing suction. James Dyson, the founder, wasn’t satisfied with existing solutions. He famously built over 5,126 prototypes before creating a successful cyclone technology that revolutionized the cleaning appliance industry. This relentless focus on innovation, alongside sleek design, propelled Dyson into a leading household tech company.

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Airbnb

The co-founders of Airbnb, Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia, faced numerous hurdles before achieving success. Their initial attempt at a product, handcrafted cereal boxes, was a complete flop.  Undeterred, they rented out an air mattress in their apartment to make ends meet.

Even this initial idea of Airbnb wasn’t met with immediate success, encountering skepticism during their early marketing efforts. However, through perseverance and a willingness to learn from each setback (they reportedly went through 12 different design iterations before settling on the current Airbnb concept), they eventually built a multi-billion dollar company that revolutionized the hospitality industry.

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Instagram

Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger’s journey to Instagram wasn’t a straight shot to success. Their first app, Burbn, focused on location check-ins and photo sharing, but it failed to gain significant traction. Instead of viewing this as a dead end, they saw it as an opportunity to learn and adapt. 

By pivoting their strategy and focusing solely on photo sharing and filtering with the now-iconic square format, they transformed Burbn into the Instagram we know today. This bold move, following an initial failed product, ultimately led to their app being acquired by Facebook for a staggering $1 billion.

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Slack

Stewart Butterfield’s journey to Slack wasn’t a linear path to a billion-dollar company. His initial foray into the tech world involved a multiplayer online game called Glitch. Despite garnering a small, dedicated following, Glitch ultimately failed to achieve commercial success. 

But Butterfield and his team didn’t let this setback define them.  Instead, they leveraged the technology and valuable lessons learned from Glitch as a foundation for developing Slack. This communication platform for businesses has become widely adopted and is currently valued at billions of dollars.

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