A short motivational monologue by Chris Collins arguing that failure is inevitable and useful. Collins recounts taking risks and failing without regret, observes many business owners avoid action due to fear of failure, and urges leaders to find a way forward by leaving their comfort zone and seeking systems or mentors who have solved similar problems.
You know, some people say failure isn't an option. Not only is failure an option, failure is guaranteed.
I've taken some big chances and had some miserable failures, but I wouldn't regret one of them. Like, I wouldn't regret it.
I travel all over the country and an owner of a business or an entrepreneur, a manager, and will come to a point in the conversation where it boils down to the reason why they didn't take action and they didn't do something was because they were afraid of failure. It blows me away how many guys I will sit with. And we're sitting there and we're talking about the Seahawks, we're talking about everything else, and they're running a department that's losing money, and they're not asking me how to fix it. I understand. Like, I get that sometimes people get scared. You feel this gravitational pull of what's comfortable. But no matter what, I'm gonna a way. Because my job as a leader is to find a way, no matter what. Whatever your beliefs are right now at this moment will determine if you even take action. Because you might believe that it's not possible. You might have a fear of failure. There's no reason you can't find a way to figure out a system or find somebody who's already been in the situation you're in to help mention you. But there is always a way. But really, to accomplish things, you're gonna have to out of your comfort zone.
A lot of times I see people, they look at the failures and they focus on that like somebody always has it way worse than you. But somehow we program ourselves that our situation is bad and we should feel sorry for ourselves when really our situation is the best it could be. And people would give their life to be able to do what we could do when we're sitting on our hands waiting for it to be handed to us. Everybody's sold on fear and failure and being scared of failure. And the truth is, failure is good. Failure is opportunity. You wake up every day to go provide as much value for people as you can to make a difference in the world and really, really help people achieve what they want. And then what happens is then you achieve what you want. Failure is temporary. It's something we hold onto. It isn't real. It's a momentary emotion that we feel that we carry around like a brick. But it's not a real thing, really. What it is, is it's a learning experience. And you're making deposits like you're depositing these things in your toolbox that you learn. Hey, I don't want to do that. But you would never know unless you tried. Really. Actually, I'm at the point now, like, I'm almost sadistic, that I look at failure as fun. The way that you make your mistakes and your failures into something positive. As you flip the script on yourself, you frame it in a different way. Calling something a failure is a choice. You could call it something else. You could call it a mistake. Right. Mistakes are easier to get over. Failure is a strong word, but it's scary. I get that it's scary. And it's a choice. It really is a choice. I think that when I'm old and I'm lying on my deathbed and I look back at my life, and I think this is true for most people. You look back at your life, you're not going to think, oh, I wish I wouldn't have ever failed. You're going to think, I wish I would have taken more chances. I wish I would have lived more. I wish I would have taken advantage of every opportunity. I think that's what we're going to think.
