How to Fail: Advice from the Expert

I’m closing one of my businesses for good. It was a failure. I devoted seven heart-wrenching years in making ORIGINAL Nutritionals a success. I gave my best effort and it wasn’t enough. This wouldn’t be the first time and it likely won’t be the last time, either. Hell, I put twenty years of eggs in the professional baseball basket and that didn’t work out as planned, either. 

History has shown that I’m a chronic failure. That doesn’t make me feel the way that it likely makes you feel, so save me the pity you might want to respond with. I’m OK with my results because my view of success includes room for plenty of failure.

The reason I’m writing these words is to bring about a better understanding of success and failure. I’d hate for a simple misunderstanding to prevent you from trying something that would mean a great deal to you. I wouldn’t want simply not understanding how success and failure works to prevent you from living the life you actually want.

Frankly, I get an obtuse amount of positive feedback from people in my life. Just today I received messages from nearly a dozen people in my inbox thanking me for the “great work” I’m doing. One of them was a stranger from Poland, who wanted to tell me he’s been following my “success” for the past few years and it’s motivated him to quit his job. Messages like these humble me and, while they’re unsolicited, they give me energy to continue.

I must say, though, that this kind of feedback worries me. It worries me because I think people see the results they like in some of my performances, they want these results, and they don’t have a clear picture of the full story. I’m open to the idea that I’m not successful, but f these allegations are true that I am successful, then you ought to know that successful isn’t what it looks like.

Technically, speaking most of what I do is a failure. In fact, everything I’ve tried has ended in failure. If I’ve learned anything, it’s that my willingness to crash and burn is the only chance in hell I’ve had a chance for the results that others would deem a success. Said differently, you shouldn’t view failure as a sign that you’re not fit for the journey if you’re interested in having any kind of success.

Logan Gelbrich  

@functionalcoach