"The Greatest Barrier to Success is The Fear of Failure"

I was watching my 2 year old son at his basketball practice and had an interesting conversation with the coach's father the other day. We were discussing how great it is to see the kids learn about the game and, more importantly, experience first hand what teamwork is. As we delved deeper into the conversation we started to talk about the old "It's not whether you win or lose, but how you play the game" adage.

This is where we parted in our thoughts. My argument was, while that sentiment certainly holds weight, it is absolutely essential that the children learn what it feels like to win, but more critically what it means to lose. In sports you have clearly defined winners and losers. It's not meant to be all roses. Somebody has to lose. That's the way sports work. What is important is teaching our kids, and ourselves, how to deal with the loss. How do we pick ourselves up after playing what we thought to be the perfect game only to lose to a heart breaking last minute shot?

As entrepreneurs we need to recognize that no matter how great our plan is, how much financial backing we have, or how much talent we have acquired, at some point we will fail. It is inevitable. Chances are you will fail a lot more than succeed early on. How we respond to the failure is what is going to dictate our success down the line.

I have worked for two failed start ups in the last 10 years and both failures were surprisingly different. I'll tell you a little about Company 1 today and maybe in the future we can discuss Company 2.

Company 1 violated one of Sun Tzu's cardinal rules in the Art of War. "Do Not repeat the tactics which have gained you one victory, but rather let your tactics be dictated by the infinite variety of circumstance" They decided to offer nearly identical products across different partners thinking what worked for the 1st partner would work for the second. Because they were so successful focusing on the end user, they neglected small and medium sized businesses which would have paid a premium for their service. As a result profitability decreased and costs went up until a new CEO was brought in to make tough decisions. The New CEO ultimately shut the company down to salvage what he could for the investors. I was fortunate enough to stay on until the very end and raise as much capital as possible before the doors closed as a last ditch effort in trying to save a company that had given up on thinking outside of the box. I learned a lot from that company and made some terrific friends. The biggest thing I learned is to never think you are too big to fail. Failure is always an option.

"Success represents the 1% of your work which results from the 99% that is called failure" - Soichiro Honda. If any quote captures the truth about success this is it. We have to pull ourselves up, dust ourselves off and get back into the fight. We aren't toddlers. We are people with ideas. We dream big, risk it all, and work towards success. If you bet the farm and lose it, I'm pretty sure the next time you are ready to bet the farm you will look at it differently. Failure gives us perspective. Don't be afraid of failure, embrace it. It might just do you some good.



Title quote: Sven Goran Eriksson

Warrior Mindset

A buddy of mine quoted this on Facebook today and I found it to be particularly inspirational. Especially when I consider its application to the entrepreneurial mindset.

This is an excerpt from "The Warrior Within" by John Little. A Compilation of the philosophies of Bruce Lee.

“Bruce had me up to three miles a day, really at a good pace. We’d run the three miles in twenty-one or twenty-two minutes. Just under eight minutes a mile [Note: when running on his own in 1968, Lee would get his time down to six-and-a half minutes per mile]. So this morning he said to me “We’re going to go five.” I said, “Bruce, I can’t go five. I’m a helluva lot older than you are, and I can’t do five.” He said, “When we get to three, we’ll shift gears and it’s only two more and you’ll do it.” I said “Okay, hell, I’ll go for it.” So we get to three, we go into the fourth mile and I’m okay for three or four minutes, and then I really begin to give out. I’m tired, my heart’s pounding, I can’t go any more and so I say to him, “Bruce if I run any more,” –and we’re still running-”if I run any more I’m liable to have a heart attack and die.” He said, “Then die.” It made me so mad that I went the full five miles.

Afterward I went to the shower and then I wanted to talk to him about it. I said, you know, “Why did you say that?” He said, “Because you might as well be dead. Seriously, if you always put limits on what you can do, physical or anything else, it’ll spread over into the rest of your life. It’ll spread into your work, into your morality, into your entire being. There are no limits. There are plateaus, but you must not stay there, you must go beyond them. If it kills you, it kills you. A man must constantly exceed his level.”