“You can do anything if you fail enough times”.​

That's my secret. Anytime I start a new project, design, idea, or a business, I usually look for a popular quote to get me excited. I have had many motivational sentences that I copied from people way smarter than me. 

After a long chat with my buddy Nate recently,  I went home and wrote down a bunch of notes. I know people think I have some top secret business knowledge… I don't. Advice that will skyrocket their own dreams of self employment? I don't. A nugget of information that guarantees their success? I really don’t. Friends and family close to me know I struggle with people thinking everything I touch turns to gold. It absolutely doesn’t. 

What I do have is a lifetime of failures that I have learned from. That’s it. You just didn’t see the failures. Because I learned from them and moved on. Aggressively. This is why you never see me sitting still for very long. I can always do better. By failing.

If you are afraid to take a swing because you might not hit a home run the first time at bat then you are missing the most valuable lessons in business (and in life). Learning by failing is every entrepreneur's secret sauce. It’s not money. I’ve been broke more times than I can count. It’s not luck. Luck only gets you so far. It’s letting go of your fear of failing and embracing it as part of your life's journey and personal growth.

Most people will never see or care about the long hard journey on the way to your goal. The crazy hours, massive learning curve, constant setbacks and mistakes... The energy it takes to get going may not even be the hard part. The financial pressure and emotional toll all that takes on your family might be the worst of it. And the crazy part? Most people never get to see why it’s all worth it. They are Paralyzed with the idea of failing. In business, failure is a necessary component of true lasting success.

I never had my own “words of wisdom". I thought long and hard about what I have to offer someone and this is the best I could come up with. “You can do anything if you fail enough times”. If that quote ends up not motivating you today… I'll just think of something else tomorrow…