Fear of Failure

If there is one thing that gets me riled up it is the talk of failure. It seems that no matter who I talk to the mention of failure seems to scare people into a frenzy. I can't stand it when people speak as if failure is bad. It is my estimation that very little in the world would get done if people stopped at the thought of failing.

Talk of biting off more than you can chew, or not being ready, or "lets play this safe" - it is all just talk of people who have lost the will to succeed. JFK once stood in front of the world and said, and I am paraphrasing, "We choose to go to the moon. Not because it is easy but because it is hard." The biggest and best things in life happen because someone saw the impossible and made it possible.

I put a quote by Nelson Mandela at the bottom of my email, and have had it there for months, because I think it is my single greatest value. The quote reads, "It always seems impossible until it is done." It is true to the Nth degree.

I hold nothing against the people who play it safe and who heed advice, play the odds, and wait for the stars to align. It isn't for me though and if there is one piece of advice I could give anyone it would be to just go for it. Jump with both feet in and chase a dream. Call it the Maverick mentality (always love to throw in a Top Gun reference), bull headed, or even living with reckless abandon, but I can't wait to fail. Failure for me just represents a stepping stone in the right direction - and it also represents the creation of a path for the next person to succeed. For every success was built on the failure of many before.

If I fail in life it will be because I went for it and it didn't quite work out, it wont be because I just didn't try. That would be real failure. Dreams are meant to be achieved and whoever tells you they can't be is just someone who has been caught up in the trap of mediocrity. I wont go there, I wont join them. I will embrace my failures and enjoy them. The next time you hear someone tell you it can't be done, or it is impossible, tell them, "so what? I guess we should have given up on going to the moon too." Failure is the last thing that should be feared.