FAIL!

87% of people polled could finish this statement.  Are you surprised?  It’s jammed down our throat constantly, but I’m not sure why.  I have friends who make their entire living going around the country speaking to people about how great it is to fail!  They know that people love to hear this because so many of us fail often.

Why is it people think you must first fail, in order to succeed?

The actual Proverb is this:

“In order to Succeed, you must first being willing to Fail.”

Can I call Bullshit on this?

Oh, I just did.

Why do you have to fail first?  Can’t you just go out and freaking succeed!?  I mean hit one out of the park on the first pitch. I don’t need to strike out. Sure it might happen, but why should I tell myself that first I need to strike out before I hit a home run?  Do you think MLB players go up to bat with that mentality? “Ok, let’s get his strike out, out of the way so I can go hit a home run later.” No, they don’t!

This one statement gets jammed down our throats in business more than any single other piece of garbage advice I’ve ever heard.  I think people like this statement on posters in their office, or on their coffee mug, because it gives them an excuse for failing. “Well, you’ve got to fail first, before you can succeed…” (tips up coffee cup to mouth as coffee drips onto the front of his white shirt)

Then it gets dragged into all kinds of other crappy advice statements:

– “All my failures equal success!”

-“I haven’t failed enough to succeed!”

– “Success is just a failure away!”

– “Success always starts with failure!”

– “The secret to Success is failure!”

You want to know the real secret!?  Statistically speaking, the more you fail, the more likely you are to fail again!  Let that one run through your failed brain pattern for a second.

It’s like those parents who have four girls and the Dad goes “well #5 will surely be a boy!”  No it won’t, you and your wife are predisposition through genetics to have girls, moron — but please enjoy your fifth girl!

If you fail often, you will probably keep failing.  That’s why you shouldn’t hire people who show a pattern of failing.  They aren’t learning how to be successful, they are learning how to fail!  Stop reading your Stuart Smalley Daily Affirmations and wake up!  Those who tend to fail, tend to continue to fail.  But those who fail will tend to buy into the lame malarkey about how failing will lead them to success. Why? Because they are failures.

Happy Monday!  And remember “To Succeed, you must first Succeed!”