An entrepreneur who lost millions explains why that failure made him successful. He argues every successful businessperson has experienced major financial loss, and that fearing failure leads to mediocrity. The real asset isn't money, he says, it's your mind, which stays intact after you lose everything.
The most dangerous story that people tell themselves about failure, which fascinates me more than anything in the world, is that they will lose everything. The one thing I want you to remember, really good entrepreneurs have lost money. Every single one of them, including myself. If you haven't lost money, you know a great entrepreneur. Failure is one of the most important parts of becoming a great entrepreneur, because failure allows you to learn. If you fail and you don't learn from it, you're an idiot. You've got to learn from the failure, and you drive that forward. And when you take that learning forward, you can only make things better. And I think a lot of people when it comes to failure, they're so scared of failing, they keep themselves mediocre. They're not playing full out. You know, play full out, take the risks. And you're like, yes, but, Colin, you could take the risk. You can afford to. I've heard that story so many times. At the end of the day, you will never drink champagne if you don't take the risk. You've got to take the risk to get yourself to that next level. And yes, you'll lose money, but guess what? You'll never lose your mind. And if you've got your mind and you've got your intelligence, guess what? You can make money back like this. And I've done it many times. I've had failure people. And guess what? I'm okay with it because I've learned a ton. And that wisdom I've gained has made me massively successful in all other ventures.
