If You Never Try, You Can Never Fail
I’ve got a friend who’s an opera singer. She’s got a heck of a voice, but she doesn’t sing much. Instead she spends her time working retail and wondering what would happen if she made a go of it as a singer.
I’ve got a friend who’s a screenwriter. He does things with words that make me cry. But he doesn’t write much, he doesn’t send out his screenplays to agents and he mostly just bitches about how bad most movies are these days.
I’ve got a friend who’s always coming up with great business ideas. We’ll be sitting there having dinner and he’ll just spout off about this great new approach to doing something or that fascinating invention that nobody has thought of before. And when I tell him “Hey, you’ve got something there. You should go for it!” he just sort of shifts in his seat all uncomfortable, shifts his eyes down and bites back into his burger.
See a pattern?
When I was younger (because I’m so old now) I always wanted to be a professional writer. It was something I was good at. It was something I had a talent for, but whenever it came down to sitting down at the keyboard and actually cranking something out, I’d freeze up. I’d come up with excuses. I’d surf the net, go for long walks, read, get into arguments with friends. . .anything to avoid actually having to DO what I was so sure I wanted to do.
Why?
Because if I never tried–if I never put an honest effort–I could never fail. If I never tried, I could go my whole life thinking I could have made a go of it as a writer. If I never tried, I could never find out that I suck.
What aren’t you doing, Biznik? What big thing have you been putting off for years? Because here’s what I’m going to do, I’m going to give you permission to try as hard as you can and, more importantly, I’m going to tell you that’s it’s OK to fall flat on your face.
Failure is a good thing. Failure teaches you something. And failure lets you move on and do something else. And even better, sometimes when you try, heck, you succeed.
November 6th, 2006 at 4:44 pm
Yes Biznik, this is the mantra….
I’d rather failure at going after what I want, than succeed at something that does not interest me.
Failure is only failure if you stop getting up.
November 6th, 2006 at 6:09 pm
i am an idea generator. always thinking of interesting inventions…they require so much to get going, i never do them.
i’d love to sell my ideas to people who would like to buy them and take them forward!
November 8th, 2006 at 3:52 pm
The issue for me is I have no idea where to start. I have great, unique, valuable skills, but don’t know how to go about selling myself and my unique contributions to people who will pay me buckets of money. That’s the issue. Suggestions?
November 9th, 2006 at 10:01 am
Well, growing big brassy balls would help.
Here’s the real thing though, you’ve got to “Productize” yourself. If you walk up to someone and say “I can do a bunch of stuff for you” you’ll get nothing. But if you say “I can revolutionize your marketing in no time flat, for a price not one tenth what the big boys charge and while you go off and play golf.” Well, you might get somewhere.