Leaders must act. Leaders must decide. Leaders must take risks. Even if it means chalking up an occasional failure.
In most things, you fail your way to success. So failing is more than just okay, it’s part of the experience you need to get you to the top.
It’s time we learned to regard failure as an opportunity offered, not an opportunity missed.
A salesperson who failed, then quit, would not be a salesperson. An athlete who lost and didn’t compete again wouldn’t be an athlete. So the true lesson here is that failure is only meted out when you quit. It isn’t failure until you quit.
Once you realize what a paralyzer fear is, and give yourself permission to try – even if you fall short of the goal – you’ve already created one success for yourself. Because once you’ve done the thing you fear, it will be yours. Half the world is traumatized into inaction simply because they will not live by that axiom.
In our Excellence In Speaking Institute we create a safe place for people to try (and fail).
You’ve probably heard that fear of speaking in public is the number one fear in America. We fear public speaking more than we fear death. So we know, every time we open the doors for ESI, we’re going to greet a dozen people who approach us with fear and loathing. They have sweaty palms. A racing pulse. Dry mouth. In a case of fight or flight, they’re definitely leaning toward flight – if only their knees would stop shaking long enough.
But they walk through the door. They accept the challenge. They resolve to look foolish, if that’s what it takes. Because they’re committed to conquering their fear.
And what happens is so exciting that it invariably becomes an emotional experience for everyone. They leave feeling that they can conquer not only their fear of public speaking, but anything else that dares to get in their way!
In watching people at our Excellence In Speaking Institute, we’ve learned not only how important it is to give yourself permission to fail, but to encourage your people to fail! Because if you’re going to get all you can out of people, you’ve got to give them the freedom to fail.
So we’ll leave you with this: Don’t stop making mistakes! We hope you make a lot in your business life. Because each mistake is a building block for your next success.