One of the best pieces of advice someone gave me early in my career was this: “If you’re gonna fail… fail spectacularly. And don’t be timid about it.”
Anyone who’s followed my career, whether up close and personal, my blog, newsletters, talks, knows my history:
I started in business after serving in the Marine Corps. I lived in Charlotte, NC and I was in a hurry to plant my flag. I wanted to be rich.
I was in such a hurry
… that I made just about every mistake possible in the business world.
My screw-ups were huge, to say the least.
My process was “ready – fire – aim.
Two words to describe it are – over eager and fearless.
Look, it’s not that I wanted to fail.
But fast learning curves are sometimes like that.
And, it turns out, it’s a GREAT way to attain mastery.
I pulled off more than one face plant.
Each time, I dissected the situation, made note of the lessons learned and climbed back into the ring to do it right.
What a difference a little first-hand experience makes.
These lessons are the foundation of everything I teach and write about today.
I never speak from theory.
It’s ALL from real-life experience.
My success was earned with blood, sweat and tears. It’s not the path I want my children and grandchildren travel.
Sometimes you can avoid the dumbest mistakes by learning from someone else’s idiocy.
Which is why I do what I do today. I keep writing and talking.
Looking back, it’s been an awesome ride, but I’m not riding off into the sunset anytime soon.
I’m still at it, making mistakes each and every day.
It’s why you test everything in marketing.
TEST … TEST … AND TEST SOME MORE.The lessons are sometimes painful, but always valuable.
And sometimes, you nail it on the first try.
Oh, well.
The 1962 New York Mets proved that you can’t lose ’em all. Their record of futility was 40 wins and 120 losses. They finished 60 ½ games behind National League Champions, the San Francisco Giants.
Okay, So what am I really saying?
Mistakes are inevitable, so you might as well learn from them. You’ll come away both smarter and richer.
That’s why you gotta figure out why people buy and start mastering the skills or what I “EXPERT SECRETS”.
Quit banging your head into the wall. You’re better than that.
