What would you do if you knew you would not fail?

and

What's truly worth doing, whether you fail or succeed?

Most of the greatest successes in history came after lots of failure.  We are more inspired by those who win after years of pursuit than by those who get it right the first time.  In spite of his various lawsuits and trials in creating Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg is hardly someone most of us can identify with.  But in the wake of millions getting laid off and wondering what the fuck to do next, it's the men and women that fell down hard and got back up again to ultimately succeed that get under our skins.

So, why is it so hard to actually do that?

Well, because failure sucks.

Duh.

That's the hardest thing to figure out, isn't it?

NEWSFLASH:  You will fail.  More times than you succeed.  If you're "normal" (whatever that means) or "reasonable" you will fail in many small ways - ways that most people won't notice.  You'll screw up a copy for your work, you'll miss the bus by 30 seconds, you'll forget to wear socks.  You know, tiny shit that only you are really aware of.  The thing is, if those are sum total of your failures, then your successes will mirror them.  You will succeed in getting that copy right, catching the bus or wearing socks.  Not really changing your world with that list of achievements, huh?

That's because the size of your successes matches the size of your failures.

You wanna go out there and change worlds (or at least your own) then you need to be bold enough to fail big.  To suck with gusto.  To blow it big enough that you consider leaving the State in order to escape the ridicule and shame.  Do it big or stay in bed, baby.

Only those badass enough to look like a complete fucking moron will ever rise to heights of glory.  The Hail Mary Pass.  The Last Ditch Effort.  The Impossible Plan.

Play it safe and get safe results.  And, aside from seat belts and bike helmets, safe never really makes a dent.

And here a few choice nuggets to chew on:

• Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team.
• Walt Disney was fired by the editor of a newspaper because he, Disney, had “no good ideas”.
• Steven Spielberg dropped out of high school in his sophomore year. He was persuaded to come back and placed in a learning disabled class. He lasted a month.
• Winston Churchill failed in the 6th grade.

And, while I'm no Michael Jordan or Winston Churchill, I can say I've failed far more than a "normal person" (whatever that means) should.  It isn't that I don't care about failure.  I hate failure.  It's humiliating and demoralizing and sucks the energy from my ridiculously enthusiastic nature.  I care about failure.  I just don't fear failure.  So, I'll probably continue to fail.  If the odds are ever in my favor (and sometimes they are) I'll succeed some, too.

What would you do if you knew you would not fail?

and

What's truly worth doing, whether you fail or succeed?