You read that right.
If ya wanna win, you gotta fail. And fail a lot.
When you see someone’s six (6) seconds of fame on YouTube, you haven’t seen the sixteen (16) years of back-to-back failures.
You haven’t seen that elite athlete running at 5:00 a.m.
Running alone.
Running in the dark.
Running alone in the dark in the rain. Temp at 38 degrees.
Wearing their reflective vest in the cold. In the heat and unbearable humidity with the temp at 93 and “feels like” 104 degrees.
You have not seen that elite performer (star athlete or violin virtuoso) when they said “no” to four offers per week from friends saying “let’s go hang out.”
You haven’t seen the “back story” of the writer who has written daily EVERY morning before her husband and children are out of bed for nine (9) years straight before that ONE (lucky) blog post went viral.
Or that global thought leader who has published a Facebook LIVE video daily for three years EVERY day before they had 1,000 views on ONE video.
In baseball, more “at bats” means more opportunities for a base hit. And more “at bats” means more opportunities for “strike outs.”
Those who WIN the most have the most FAILures.
Those who win the most take the most risks of not being appreciated, of not being recognized.
Those who win the most take the most risks of being criticized.
I coach people to use social media to make an impact.
And the most frequent objection I hear is “fear” in hundreds of different ways.
I’m not good enough, funny enough.
I look fat in videos. I get nervous on video and stumble over my words.
The biggest fear people have is not looking good enough. Not performing well enough.
The biggest fear is the fear of being criticized by your peers (who, by the way, are sitting on the sidelines criticizing while you are in the arena performing).
Those performing in the arena have the same fears as the sideline spectators.
But their passion is bigger than their fear.
And you – the performer in the arena, the winner – are willing to fail more often than you win.
And this is why you win.