Sorry, but You Are Not Failing Enough
Some of you are under-failing
Mark Zuckerberg once said: “The only strategy that is guaranteed to fail is not taking any risks”.
Not taking any risks may result in fewer failures, but it’ll also result in less success. Failure is a requirement on the road to success.
I’m willing to be you’re not failing enough. You are doing what some would call “under-failing”.
Under-failing is what happens when you are so afraid to screw up that you don’t even give yourself a chance to do something awesome. You are not taking enough risks.
Zuck would be disappointed in you.
The result is nothing great happens.
Let’s be honest here, avoiding failing means you’re avoiding the big wins. You know… the good stuff that makes life exciting?
Sound familiar?
You likely are not satisfied with your life. You’ve taken a few shots before, failed and now, you’re playing it safe - too safe…
But, that’s not what life is about.
By under-failing, you are not just stalling your progress — you are ironically ruining your happiness.
Let’s get you out of this rut!
Becoming comfortable with risk
One of the main reasons you are not failing enough is because you are afraid of the potential negative outcome of taking risks. The result is you avoid risks and have less opportunity to fail.
We need to get you comfortable with taking risks!
Unless you had parents who made you terrified of taking risks, chances are, you were a risk taker at one point and failed. This got you to where you are now.
Increasing your risk comfort levels takes some work.
You start by taking a risk slighter bigger than you normally would and then, over time you’ll continue to increase the level of risk.
At one point, you’ll take a risk too big, fail, and then you’ll take a step back.
I know, I know, this can be a little intimidating. So, before you start taking risks, break down the potential outcomes.
Pull out a notebook or even the notes app on your phone. Now, write down what is likely to happen if you take a bigger risk for each potential risk you are taking.
Write down the most likely scenario, the best case scenario and the worst case scenario. If the worst-case scenario is more likely to happen than the best-case scenario, this might not be the risk to start with.
Also, if the worst-case scenario means complete ruin for you… Don’t do it.
This sounds obvious, but those who are risk-takers often have a bad habit of risking it all (I’ve been there).
Since you’re just getting started, don’t risk too much. You want to only risk a little more than you would normally be comfortable with.
Think of it like poker. You could bet half your chips, but you won’t. Normally you’d only be 10%, but this time you’ll do 20%.
You don’t want to scare yourself away from risk right off the bat.
You need to change your view of failure
I’ve written a few blog posts on failure, and my view really comes down to a few things.
Failure is awful. It can be devastating, ruining your life and others, and shouldn’t be taken lightly.
Failure is inevitable.
If failure is inevitable, you want to minimize the amount it happens, but also maximize what you can get out of it. AKA learn from your mistakes.
You don’t want to fail. None of us do.
Failing could mean your business going under and your employees losing their jobs. It could also mean you getting into a car accident and killing someone.
That’s extreme, but you see what I’m getting at.
When you do fail, such as your business going under, you need to gather any sort of positivity from it that you can.
Figure out how you can prevent this failure in the future, write down the lessons you learned, and share your failures to help others not repeat the same mistakes you did.
Once you start viewing failure as bad, but inevitable, and also an opportunity to learn, you will build respect for it.
While you’ll want to avoid it, you don’t want to be so afraid that it stops you in your tracks. You also want to know what to do if and when it happens.
Find your balance
As you start putting yourself in opportunities to fail, at one point, you’ll realize you’re failing too often or too hard.
That’s when you can dial it back a bit.
You need to find a healthy balance that allows you to have massive potential upside, but still let you sleep at night.
If you catch yourself with heavy anxiety because of bad potential outcomes and with stress seeping into every area of your life, maybe it’s time to dial it back a bit.
Your failure tolerance will also change with age and lifestyle.
If you’re 25 and have no kids, you can fail big and fail a lot.
If you are 40, have a wife and 3 kids, a mortgage and 2 cars, you will be much less likely to take big risks and with good reason.
Balance is key here and that will come from self-awareness.
Closing thoughts
Big risks give birth to big rewards. You need to put yourself in a place where you can fail, and do fail occasionally so you can have to opportunity to win big.
This doesn’t mean buying lottery tickets every week.
This means you need to push yourself a little harder and take a few chances on great opportunities so that you can win big now and then.
Thanks for reading