Failure Is My Friend
And I’m Proud of It.
I have a confession. I have too many interests online. I am a consumer of information on the internet and like creating content and participating in the online world.
When I first started figuring out how to create content, I was mesmerized by the idea of having loyal fans on the internet who would potentially pay for your product or service.
Of course, only now am I seeing how late I actually am for this party.
People have been out here for years trying to either create a name for themselves or replace their income with passive income on the internet.
And a lot of people have.
I, on the other hand, feel at times as though I have failed miserably.
Instead of trying to do one thing super well, I have attempted seven different side hustles and have gotten mediocre results from each.
I “fail” because of a lack of consistency in one area. I’ll say it upfront.
If this sounds like you, I’m going to tell you why this “too many interests” phenomenon isn’t a bad thing and also why failure is extremely necessary when trying to determine what to do with your life.
Let’s warm up with some mental coaching
This is a fairly natural thing for me to do. Take something that seems negative and analyze it to see if there are any good things to come from it.
This is the foundation for a growth mindset, as you may have heard other writers babbling about before. With the growth mindset, we don’t expect life to be perfect. As a matter of fact, we are all too aware of the challenges and obstacles ahead.
We expect them and even get a little bit excited by them.
I know. Self-help people are weird.
But it’s not because we enjoy discomfort, but because we understand that these unpleasant experiences will allow us to reflect on what we can do to improve before trying again next time.
The growth mindset allows us to get through the day-to-day pains and hardships because we know that these very circumstances will forge us into something better and stronger over the long haul.
But this can only happen if we allow ourselves to be transformed and renewed by our circumstances and not defined by them.
People who never evolve and get out of their comfort zones are the ones who suffer the most pain in the long run.
They do what’s normal, secure, and acceptable to friends and society at large.
These types of don’t want to try new things because they're afraid of being bad and other people laughing at them. They don’t want to stir the pot too much because, well— putting yourself out there for people to judge or hate is uncomfortable.
Back to “failure” being my “friend”
Have you ever hear of the term “jack of all trades, but master of none”?
Yup, that’s your boy.
It’s part of the reason I felt like I couldn’t complete college. With all of the things that I can do, how am I only pick one major thing and still be with it for the rest of eternity?
It doesn’t quite seem right. So I stopped going and became an “entrepreneur.” What that word means to you, I‘m not sure.
For me, an entrepreneur contains three qualities:
- Belief in their abilities
- Perseverance to push through failure
- The ability to capitalize on existing tools and resources to solve a problem
Fail #1
In other words, they believe in themselves more than they believe in relying on an institution. They see what there is, and they recognize what they may be able to do. Then they go to work building their thing.
For me, that was a sales funnel for a pair of wood sunglasses I wanted to sell back in 2018. I know, pretty silly.
I spent three months building this stupid 3-page funnel. It drove exactly zero sales.
Fail #2
After that, I decided I wanted to work on a website, carrying more than just sunglasses. With the help of a friend, we built the catalog up to over 200 products. It drove roughly twenty sales and netted about $1200 in six months.
Which is cool. (at least I think)
But did we build it up enough to generate enough income for us to both quit our jobs and be “financially free” like I had hoped and dreamed?
Not quite.
We forgot to market the site along the way effectively. (it’s still a work in progress)
Fail #3
On top of all of that, I realized that I wanted to motivate people. Something literally struck me one evening, and I determined that that was my calling.
I had no clue how it would be done and by what means, but I picked up a camera and started filming videos every day on YouTube. I did a 30-day challenge and uploaded a video every day. I put a lot of work into it. 3–5 hours each day.
Each video received no more than 10 views. The videos on my channel that have more than that are the ones that I paid to promote.
Nobody wanted to watch my stupid ass YouTube videos. I had to beg friends and family even to get a few views to try and avoid looking stupid. Pathetic.
Be proud of your “failures” and allow them to teach you
Once I discovered Medium, I was thrilled.
Start writing and make some money? Sounds great!
So I start writing. And then nothing. I write stuff, and nobody claps.
Now, I know what you may be thinking.
I can hear your thoughts shouting in your head, trust me. I don’t blame you.
Why would someone continue creating even though they have not pushed through the barrier of having thousands of followers on YouTube, Medium — or whichever platform they create?
The answer: because you love creating, and you want to get better at your craft.
It takes time and consistency in one area
People aren’t going to love you out of the gate. Shit, they may never love you at all. But that’s not going to stop you from producing the things you want to and that you think could be useful to someone else.
People don’t create things for the people that won’t appreciate their work. They do it for the small audience that will appreciate it and hopefully come back for more.
Those are your people. Forget about the rest of those losers.
The people who look at you weirdly and question your reason for doing what you are doing are the same ones who wish they had the courage to do what you’re doing — creatively putting yourself out there to expose yourself to more of that growth stuff we were mentioning earlier.
This could be growth in the form of critical feedback or growth in the form of dollars being added to your bank account from your hustle.
But they don’t.
They don’t want to reveal their true self to people. They desperately want to express themselves, don’t want to let the world know them or judge them.
But you, you are different. You are the one who is going to continue honing your craft and doing what you feel called to do, regardless of how silly it may look.
Closing
You see your talents, and even though you aren’t perfect, you believe in your ability to succeed and do great things beyond what’s in front of you now.
You enjoy failure because each step backward is secretly one step forward, and you don’t even know it yet.
I’m happy with my list of so-called “failures.” And in case you haven’t figured out, none of them are failures at all.
Failure, just like beauty; is in the eye of the beholder.
So unless you’ve completely given up, failure doesn’t exist, and never will.
Oh yeah, and like I highlighted before — consistency on one platform is also recommended.
Until next time, keep creating.
Cheers
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