Dan Waldschmidt
an ordinary dude with an outrageous vision…
Website: https://www.DanWaldschmidt.com
Twitter: DanWaldo
No one wants to hurt. It’s painful getting back up from a skinned knee, a failed job interview, or a missed promotion.
You don’t want to lose a sales to a competitor or get your “big idea” shot down in front of other executives.
But that’s how you are wired. To screw up. Sometimes.
Screwing up is part of the game.
Like it or not that’s just the rules of the game. That’s life.
You can try to be perfect, but that comes with another set of problems. So does being the “know-it-all”. Or passive aggressive. Screwing up is actually the better option.
And it’s not all bad either. In fact, there are some really cool ways you can be amazing by screwing up.
Here are a few things you might not have thought about failure:
- It reminds you that you’re human. — You fail. That’s OK. It means you understand how people think and work and play. It means you are well equipped to solve “sticky” people problems (a.k.a. business problems). Solve away.
- It suggests that what you just did might not be effective. — It’s a gentle nod toward the direction of success. The faster you figure out what it isn’t you can figure out what it is. So learn. Don’t be stubborn. Fail. Adapt. Conquer.
- It encourages another attempt at success. — You don’t want to end it all on a “down note”, do you? Blekkkkk. Spit out that “cold coffee” taste and go try it again. Hey, if Edison needed ten thousands attempts to solve the light bulb, you might need to pace yourself. This isn’t happening “overnight”.
- It focuses your attention on what really matters. — That’s what happens when you get kicked in the teeth. You remember (quite hastily) why you are doing what you are doing. It’s real. And that creates the passion you need to move past the obstacles in your way.
- It tests out your audacious ideas for changing the world. — Failure is the ultimate beta-test. No harm. No foul. It’s just you working to see if your idea is big enough to make a difference. Guess what? Screwing up shows you pretty darn quickly what really matters.
- It points out how important what you are trying to do really is — If it were easy to be amazing, we would all wear capes. And nothing would be important. Because it would be easy. The hard parts of life define the urgency for you solution.
Your screw-up is really just a giant reminder that you are on to something. Something bigger than you might have imagined possible.
It means what you are doing is working.
That’s right. It is big.
Monstrous, in fact. Why else would you be screwing it up?
You can be cynical and decide to give up. Or angry and decide to blame someone else. Or you can be heartbroken and just stop trying.
But just because you are taking yourself out of the game doesn’t mean that the game is over.
You’re just sitting on the sidelines.
Which means no glory. Just your guts.
And that not what you wired to do. You’re supposed to be amazing.
Do that.