Entrepreneurship
Choosing NOT To Fail
I have learned a lot of life lessons just seeing my daughter grow up. Like when she was just a year old and was trying to take her first steps and repeatedly fell down, she tried again…and again…and again.
Sometimes she laughed. Sometimes she cried. Sometimes she laughed and cried at the same time. But she kept trying and trying…laughing and crying.
She did not label her experience. She just enjoyed it.
Unlike us adults, our babies don’t know the possibility of a failure, so they happily keep falling down until one day they take a few steps, and then a few more. Before long, they’re jumping and running. All their trying pays off.
They fall but never fail.
As grown-ups, what if we also simply choose not to fail?
Shortcuts
It is human nature to want to get a job done as quickly as possible. Like you cross the street between intersections instead of using the zebra crossing. Or you jump a fence instead of using the gate.
It is not your problem!
Most of us have grown up being told that it’s important to accomplish as much as we can. But what we often aren’t told is that rushing can result in accidents, errors, and more time spent in the long run.
It is often not worth it.
Warren Buffett, the investing legend, says, “No matter how great the talent or efforts, some things just take time. You can’t produce a baby in one month by getting nine women pregnant.”
This rule applies to almost every sphere of life. Some things just take time.
Burn Your Boat
It seems like yesterday, but it was nearly seven years ago. I was at the crossroad of my career and was facing an important decision. The outcome would greatly impact my future.
I had spent the past 8 years working in the job of a stock market analyst. My job was comfortable, and the money that came with it was good enough. But something seemed missing. I took a few years to realize this, but what was missing was the need to have complete control over my life and decisions. I did not like someone else calling the shots for me and maybe, in a phone call, deciding what my future would look like.
And thus, after much deliberation and after ensuring that I had financial cushion to support me for a couple of years, I quit my job.
The first year was tough. Compounding the fact that I was trying to build credibility, brand myself and make meaningful connections in a new field, I was also dealing with the arrival of my second child.
The One Thing You Need to Grow and Prosper
There is one thing that is common to you and me. We have this as the root of our relationship.
It is also common to any organisation, nation, economy, and civilization.
This one thing, if absent, will destroy the most the most successful business, bring down the most powerful government, put brakes on the most thriving economy, destruct the most influential leadership, the greatest friendship, and the deepest love.
But if developed and leveraged, this one thing has the ability to create unparalleled success and affluence in every dimension of life.
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