7/19 Blog: Still Trying to Embrace Failure

We’ve all heard the stories of people succeeding after repeated failures, yet it’s hard to take chances hearing “no” time and again. Some recent “success after failure” stories I found include hearing of RH Macy failing 7 times before his NY store caught on, Abraham Lincoln failed in his first attempt at his first time in getting elected to six different elected offices. Einstein didn’t speak until he was 4 and couldn’t read until he was 7. Pasteur ranked 15^th of 22 students in chemistry as an undergraduate student. Charles Schultz had every cartoon he submitted rejected by his high school yearbook staff, and Disney wouldn’t hire him. Lance Armstrong finished last in his first bicycle race. Walt Disney was fired from a newspaper because he “had no imagination” and went bankrupt many times—then the city of Anaheim stalled the contruction of Disneyland, saying it would only attract riffraff. Barry Manilow sang a song about his lesson from failures, “God Bless the Other 99”. He talks about failing to get a part 99 times out of 100, but learning so much more from those 99 failures than from that 1 “yes”. The first time Jerry Seinfeld walked on stage, he froze, then stumbled through a minute and a half of material, and was booed off the stage. He came back the next night and got a standing ovation. Elvis Presley was fired by the manager of the Grand Ol Opry after his first performance. Twelve publishers rejected Harry Potter before it was picked up. Dr. Suess’ first book was rejected by 27 publishers before it was first published.

 

So why is the word ‘no’ so powerful? Why do we accept it so quickly?

 

The word ‘no’ is only as powerful as the power we give it. Don’t give it power. Guys know all about rejection because we usually are the ones asking women out. One ‘no’ doesn’t keep you from trying—it just means ‘no’ to that woman. Time to find someone who appreciates you! Women learn the power of ‘no’ when, increasingly, they ask a guy if he’s free, or if he’d like to go with you to do something you really want to do. When looking for a job or promotion, ‘no’ is heard most frequently (if there’s a response at all). In business, we hear it from customers—and one ‘no’ doesn’t mean we’re out of business, it just means that we haven’t tried hard enough to convince that customer or we haven’t talked to the right customer who appreciates what we have to offer (be it a product or service).

 

‘No’ has no power until we give it power. Don’t empower that word.