I thought that I would switch it up a little bit on the blog today and share one of the videos that I did for my other site Soldier of Finance. You did know that I another site, right? Consider yourself informed. Here’s one of the many videos I’ve done. Enjoy…..
Today I want to talk a little bit about failure. A lot of people are afraid of failure. They are just terrified of it. They are afraid of trying something new. They’re scared of attempting to change something about their life so they just don’t do it at all. As much as I talk about success, whether that be on the Soldier of Finance blog or my Good Financial Cents blog, the one thing I am not afraid to admit is that I have failed. I have failed many times.
I wanted to give just few different examples of how I have failed, but more importantly what I’ve learned from it. It’s one thing to fail, but what you learn from that experience, what you take away from it and how apply it to your life going forward is the most important part. Failure is almost a necessity to success just so you can learn how to tweak and change the things that you are trying to accomplish and how you can improve those.
Example of Failure
One of the first things in my life that I failed at, which just shocked the crap out of me, was in basic training. Our very first PT test, that was our physical training test and we had to do max pushups, max sit-ups and a two-mile run. The first time that I took the PT test in basic training I failed the run. I think our cut off was somewhere in the 16-minute mark for a two-mile run, and I ran it in the high 18s. I was 21 years of age and to fail a two-mile run when I was working out, I thought I was in decent shape, it was a truly eye-opening experience and really a gut-wrenching feeling because in basic training that is not the place where you want to fail, especially around your peers, around your drill sergeants, etc.
My take away from that was don’t have this false sense of accomplishment, thinking that maybe your all good when in all actuality you need to work and to change and to improve on some of those skills. What I did was just kept doing the PT, kept doing the running, kept trying to improve on myself and my PT score and sure enough by the time basic training ended I was running it in that 14-minute mark. Still not excelling of all the other guys, but I have never been a runner in my life so just the fact that I passed and passed with a decent score I was pretty well content.
It’s Not a Pyramid Scheme….
Let me give you another example of how I failed. One thing you’ll learn about me is that I love to try new things, whether that be going out and trying new restaurants, going out and visiting new locations, or in my business life I love trying new business ventures. One area of my life where I failed not just once but twice was multi-level marketing. If you’ve heard about multi-level marketing a lot of people refer to those as pyramid schemes. I tried two different multi-level marketing businesses and both of them failed.
The take away that I got from those two experiences, those two failures was that if you’re going to start a business no matter what it is, make sure it is something you’re passionate about. Make sure it is something you believe in 100,000%. With these multi-level marketing businesses that I went through, I was sold on this dream, this vision of passive income and having all this extra money coming in. I was more focused on the money then the actual business, the actual passion that was presented in front of me. It sounded like a good idea, but I wasn’t in it for the right reasons. That was my biggest take away. I don’t mean to down all multi-level marketing businesses. I am sure there are some that have a decent business model, but the ones that I was a part of, I didn’t believe it, and I couldn’t sell something I didn’t believe in.
Now with my financial planning business, with my blog with Soldier of Finance these are all things that I believe, I’m passionate about. I want to give everything I’ve got into this hoping that I can help people, whether that’s changing their life financially or give them the sense of encouragement and accomplishment they need to succeed in their own lives.
So you’re probably thinking, “Wow, these are some pretty big failures.” And they are. These are things that I had to learn from. It was an eye-opening experience on both those occasions. These are just two examples. I promise you I have several other examples of where I have failed, but the take away, as I said earlier is what I learned from them. That is the most important part because you have to learn.
Just Like Riding a Bike
Whenever you were riding your bike for the first time, unless you were just a bike-riding animal most likely you fell. I remember I fell hard my first time, scrapped up my knee. My grandmother and my dad were there to support me and pick me back up and I was scared. I didn’t want to get back on. After getting on again, I think I fell a second and third time, but I kept trying and kept trying and learned from those experiences. Next thing you know I am riding my bike like every other kid was. You have to fall every once in a while, but don’t get discouraged. Pick yourself up, dust yourself off and learn from it and then apply it. You’ll move on and get on to the next step.
Thanks for stopping by. Be sure to check out the blog, soldieroffinance.com and we’ll see you next time.
The opinions voiced in this material are for general information only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual. To determine which investment(s) may be appropriate for you, consult your financial advisor prior to investing.
Source: goodfinancialcents.com