29 Comments

Tim, I discovered by iterating that my best performing stories are those where I fail first and then figure out a solution, however insignificant the problem may be. Even in writing, humans love to read stuff where a transformation happens.

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Seen similar effects. Can you link to the best example story of this from you?

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Tim, this one came to my mind - failed to become a professor but started seeing opportunities: https://medium.com/career-paths/getting-let-go-from-your-job-is-a-blessing-if-youre-ready-to-question-your-beliefs-7f6e57a265dc.

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"This is gonna sound whack, but I hope you fail with whatever goal you’re working on right now. I really want you to get this gift from heaven."

I have failed so many times at the goal I'm on now that this time I'm using those failures and shortcuts I learned to now be successful. And it's working. 🙌😉

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What's your goal Dawn?

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Sharing my experience and lessons learned as a parent and caregiver in extreme parenting situations. Building a community around that and helping those families manage their stress and find solutions to their unique issues.

To achieve that goal requires consistent action (writing, publishing, marketing etc consistently). That's been difficult for me to do for various reasons for the past 4 years. But I'm finally here!

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What say you of the people who have taken risk and failed,again taken risk and again failed.it kept occurring in a sequence.now they do not know what to do and not fail again.

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Chances are people in this situation refuse to learn. Would you agree?

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Seriously. It's either they're not learning anything from it or it's not meant to be and time to move on. Or both.

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"Not meant to" be sounds a but like hope. You make it meant to be.

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I feel that if you keep meeting resistance it's not meant to be. Either not yet or ever. To me, it means you need to evaluate yourself, work through the blocks holding you back, and re-evaluate. And move on if it doesn't align with your mission.

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To some extent yes but I do not fully agree.I have personally watched these people and they are wiser than average.

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Romi, then why aren't they learning from their mistakes?

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I think it is a question of what mode you choose.if you are going with the flow,chances of failure are less.if you are taking your own path at your own speed,chances of failure are multiple.i think a dash of good luck is required in every endeavor.

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Tim: You've written a lot of great articles but this is my favorite.

It's what I told my son as he went off to college:

"Go out into the world and fail."

It's the fastest way to discover yourself.

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Man am i trustworthy then…

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"The failures make you magnetic."

That is so true.

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Barrier to entry is truly taking a risk. That’s all

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I’ve had a heap of failures which have offered so much learning and growth. My two biggest - bulimia in my twenties and more recently divorce, which have catapulted my life to new levels of joy and fulfilment.

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So many people live in fear of the great big 'What If' that will probably never happen... what if that 'What if' turned out to be your best ever move? 🤷🏼‍♀️

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This essay reminds me of how my envy of coworkers did in my first career. My coworkers were moving up, getting married, buying cars and houses. I was envious, not going anywhere.

Two months ago, I read some of Joseph Epstein’s book on envy. He stated “The philosophers who wrote the best material on envy were bachelors” I’m a bachelor. Yes, this scares me. A lot. It should.

I’ve had at least four chances to chat with awesome women this year and I nixed all of them. Fear of failure. Fear of them finding out I’m a freak.

There’s nothing I can say to conclude this story.

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I loved this post. I find the writing I am interested in most is from people telling me about failures they have overcome. I also find that my writing that gets the most love is the writing that shares failures I have overcome. It gets boring listening to the person who "has never taken an L." It's not relatable, and we need to relate to others if we want to be inspired.

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Looking back I realized I've failed before, many times, and in the rearview mirror they don't look as devastating to me as they felt at the time. In some cases the failure somehow put me on a better path. I need to remind myself of that going forward.

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Totally agree!

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Incredibly freeing advice, plus a great read. Thanks, Tim.

And for all parents out there raising kids and worrying that your kiddos will struggle--or FAIL--this is worth reading.

One of the greatest gifts we can give our kids is the space to fail, pick themselves back up and try again.

Failing forward = resilient kids.

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No, 'lil Timmy, you wouldn't try again the next day. You'd be recovering in hospital from the stab wounds.😊

As for failing, we shoot our shot and see what happens.

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Decades of stock trading failures and failures seems not stop with success feelings always in my heart. You feel failures with your heart the most. Like not having that soul connected partner with them out there seemingly somewhere not caring.

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