A short Optimize Plus One podcast episode (+1: #980) by Brian Johnson urging listeners to reframe mistakes and failures as essential building blocks for mastery. He highlights the proverb "the master has failed more times than the beginner has even tried," cites Adam Grant quoting Randy Commissar (use a baseball batting-yardstick; hitting .300 is excellent) and Carol Dweck’s retelling of Michael Jordan's many missed shots as examples of learning through repeated practice, and closes by promoting the Optimize 2020 event (five days, 101 luminaries, online/offline tickets).
Questions this episode answers
+1: #980
December 11, 2019
If I'm hitting .300, I'm a genius.
Missed more than 9,000 shots; lost almost 300 games; 26 times trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed.
Five days; 101 world-class luminaries; one million people; tickets available online and offline at OptimizeMe2020.
Chapters
You're listening to optimize with brian johnson. More wisdom in less time. Hi, this is Brian. Welcome back to another Optimize plus one. A few plus ones ago we had fun chatting about the starting and finish lines of my first business E Teams. I mentioned that it wasn't all sunshine and rainbows and we briefly discussed the fact that I failed way more times than I've succeeded. By the way, as a recovering fixed mindset perfectionist, it was therapeutic for me to say that out loud. Seriously. Today we're going to remind ourselves to embrace the mistakes and failures of life that inevitably and necessarily occur as we strive to do great things in pursuit of mastering ourselves in service to the world. This gem is pretty epic and worth contemplating. I quote, the master has failed more times than the beginner has even tried. Then there's Adam Grant's wisdom from Originals where he quotes Randy Commissar, one of the best entrepreneurs investors alive. Again, I quote, whether you're generating or evaluating new ideas, the best you can do is measure success on the kind of yardstick that batters use in baseball. As Randy Commissar puts it, if I'm hitting.300, I'm a genius. That's because the future cannot be predicted. The sooner you learn it, the sooner you can be good at it. End quote. And there's Michael Jordan's wisdom via Carol Dweck's mindset. One more time. I quote carol Michael Jordan embraced his failures. In fact, in one of his favorite ads for Nike, he says, I've missed more than 9,000 shots. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times. I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. Dweck tells us you can be sure that each time he went back and practiced the shot 100 times. So as we look forward to 2020 and commit to making it the best year of our lives and the start of of the best decade of our lives. Let's reframe our mistakes and failures as foundation building fuel for our heroic quests. Capitalize all those mistakes, use the data wisely and one more time, give us all you've got today. We hope you enjoyed this episode of Optimize with Brian Johnson. To find out more, go to Optimize Me. Hey guys, this is Brian with a quick little P.S. i'm really excited to let you know about an event we're working on. Plan is to make it the premier self optimizing event of 2020. We're calling it Optimize 2020. You the modern hero. Basic idea five days. 101 world class luminaries. One million people. You can learn more and get your tickets to the online and offline event at Optimize Me2020. Again, that's Optimize Me2020. Hope to see you there.
