The Positives in Failure

When I was twelve years old, I was a brown belt training in martial arts and I heard an awesome quote. "If you fall, you don't fail. If you don't get up, then you have failed." I almost forgot about that quote! And the depth of that quote goes beyond any of our understanding.

I have been taught to take calculated risks. Some people believe it is safer to not take risks and look for the easy way to get things, or take the easy way to live, or even find the easiest answer to a problem. But sometimes you have to take risks! And that is what I find more and more these days: People don't want to take risks!

If there one thing I can definitely say about myself is that I am a risk taker. But my reasoning behind my risks always came from the mentality that I never knew HOW I would do something, the only thing that matter that I knew  WOULD do something. That was enough! So no matter what the risk, I knew it would bring me somewhere closer to my goal. I've done it in my training, with money, when I moved out, when I started my business, speaking to people, looking for an answer to something, I always took risks.

I never wanted to regret not trying, whether it be with people or new opportunities. But I think most people are afraid of failure. Failure means humiliation, right? Well that is a negative mentality, and we have to get over our notions that failure is BAD. I don't even like to use the word failure. For example, I was taught in the martial arts the Confidence Formula which was:

 Challenges + Accomplishments = Confidence

How does this make sense? Well when we come across challenges in our life, or in the way of our goals, there are two things that can happen. We either get through the challenge and overcome it, in which we accomplish something and we feel great from the result! OR, we don't get through the challenge, but we learn something from it, that ether helps us get around our obstacle, or adds to our repertoire of life lessons and skills. Isn't that still an accomplishment?? We must always acknowledge those small victories and increase our confidence by taking risks in life!

 If I never took risks, I would have never met some great people in my life, I would not have my own martial arts school today, and I would not be going for my fourth degree Black Belt in a year. If you ever saw the movie Fired Up, a very funny movie, one of the characters says "You have to risk it to get the biscuit!" 

Look at our own history. Only people who took great risks in their lives have ever done anything great at all! And sometimes the "failures" are what made those people even stronger and even more successful than ever! And that seems to be a pattern, if you really research successful people. Jut watch the video I included to this post and you'll see what I am taking about.

Another movie connection: In the 2005 movie Batman, the first of the Dark Knight Trilogy, the butler Alfred would ask Bruce Wayne "Why do we fall, Master Bruce?" in which Alfred would answer his own question, stating "So we can learn to pick ourselves back up!" Food for thought!

Yours in service,

ANDREW TRENTO