Fear Failure? Fail Faster!!!

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This month's topic on fear has gripped me, on more than one occasion. It's gripped me hard in the past and prevented me from taking risks that could have helped me do more.

For instance...

I could have stayed in the San Francisco Bay Area in the mid-90s and gotten a job at one of the dot-coms...Had I not been afraid computers were just a passing fad and that BBSs were just for porn junkies. I was working on computers before PCs were available for us all. Drats!

I could have been a successful real estate investor in Milwaukee in the late 90s...Had I not been afraid that the big city of Milwaukee was so scary. The real estate market in Milwaukee shows my old house that I paid $50,800 for in 1996 would be worth well over $100,000 as of the city's assessment for 2006, but I let it go for a song in 1998.

I could have been a successful teacher in the early 21st century...Had I not been afraid of who knows what. I was just 3 semesters from graduating, and I stopped going to school. I just decided I didn't want to go to school, I didn't want to get a degree, so I went to work at (where else?) an Internet Service Provider to play with computers again, just as the tech market was bottoming out.

So what do I regret most and what did I learn from the past? I regret letting FEAR grip my life, and not taking the chance on something that could have been great for me, or at the very worst, could have provided something for me to learn some great lessons from.

I learned that even if I failed, I would still be learning something, and that looking back at my past is no way to live.

So how do I live now? I TAKE THE SHOT! I got married to a great gal in 2002, I started blogging over at Make It Great!, and now, I've published my first book. Whether it succeeds or not doesn't matter. What matters is I took the shot, and I'm going to keep taking shots.

I'm going to FAIL FASTER until I figure out what I want to do, and I realize that even when I figure it out, I'm going to FAIL SOME MORE! And that's okay with me, because I'd rather try and fail than never try at all.

And if you surround yourself with GREAT people, they'll help pick you up when you fail and help you get back on the horse. You can watch me riding this horse I got back up on here. Really!

Phil Gerbyshak


Technorati Tags: failure, collective genius, phil gerbyshak

Comments

[Dawn Goldberg]

I love this post, Phil!!!!! I agree - fail faster because you never know what's going to come at you. If anything, once you fail, that's new information you didn't have before - you now know that you don't like that particular thing, or that wasn't a good way to do it, or that's really not the right place for you.

Or - you actually succeed beyond your wildest dreams. But you'll never know unless you try to fail.

Congratulations to you on taking the shots in your life!!!!!

[Tim Draayer]

Greap post, Phil. We all need to be reminded that even though we fear failing at the thing, not trying is also a failure.

[Phil Gerbyshak]

Dawn - You are absolutely right: New information and success often come as the result of a perceived failure. We MUST overcome that and find a way to succeed, instead of worrying about ways we'll fail.

Tim - thanks for your note. Reminders are what keep us on task and ready to take the next shot. Great follow-up article you posted at your website as well!

[phil]

When LOVE never swich to HATE…and GOD save the world…it will be the END…and the START some where!

Powerfull PHILOSOPHY as a weapon,agains my perception,natural as inocence..and those people who I RESPECT and thrully feel their ART unconnected,their LIFE without a single PURPOSES just material and social apperance are their VERTU.No question about who they are and why…….and NEVER I say to those what I believe.ALL those people piss on me all the time,space and time as my manipulation.Manipulate LIFE as a structural project,LIFE and NATURE are my pay check$RESPECTING people and their lack of perception is are responsability,are JUSTICE.LIFE as a birth…a birth of a date….a date,of your DEATH…an all will fusion with UNIVERSE…shooting star as my,compation…as I know INSPIRATION…as I deeply feel the PAIN…never I will JUGE my peers…but I will know silently.I am the GOd of my brain it is OK to annalyse with respect.when your fear ,become a balance…the load of your JUSTICE,dilema…the mass of your JUSTICE,decision…all this just for simply,understand….the PAIN of Human Being.BE a GENIUS it is the PAINFULL way to live a life.no one whant to be in my BRAIN.but I know so much it stimulate me and feed my knowlege.without pretention as also bipolar1 I will NEVER exchange my BRAIN for an empty one.PHIL who face his FEAR.taking the time to look arround