Transcript of a panel recorded at Global Speakers Academy in which experienced coaches and speakers (Coach Jimmy, Danny Purcell, Diane Swillinger, Pat Quinn, Renee Marino, Hope Zavara) answer how failure or apparent failure prepares people for success. Speakers share personal anecdotes (weight loss, college dropout, Broadway rejection), practical advice (take responsibility, keep trying, learn one change at a time, iterate presentations), and metaphors (swing for the fences, ‘first ugly one’). The overall message: failure is a learning step toward mastery and success.
Chapters
How does failure or apparent failure set you up for success? Recently I was at Global Speakers Academy put on by entrepreneur organization where I got to ask this exact question to legendary speakers like Pat Quinn, Danny Purcell, coach Jimmy Renee Marino, Diane Swillinger and Hope Zavara. And mind you, these coaches, these speakers, these legendary speakers have coached legendary speakers like Tony Robbins, Grant Cardone, Daymond John and many, many others. Thousands of other business owners around the country listen to what they have to say.
I've had plenty of failures and challenges. So before getting started in business, I was 100 pound over overweight, three time college dropout, had to move back in with my parents in my early 20s. And I really do feel I had to go through all that. I feel I was a really late bloomer when it comes to entrepreneurship and personal development and mindset and being coachable and being open to learn other ways to do things. And it was in that shift that, it's funny, you make a little bit of a mindset shift and the universe shows you that all these solutions were around you the whole time. You just weren't open to using them, you weren't open to learning from them. And I think it was needing to hit that rock bottom moment and quit blaming other people. And it wasn't even blaming. It was explaining my situation. And when I took 100% responsibility for where I was in my life, everything started to change.
Yeah, when I talk to corporations, I always ask people, what's the opposite of success? And the room shouts out failure. I'm like, no, it's not. The opposite of success is not trying or quitting. You know, people remember that BABE Ruth had 60 home runs in a single season, an amazing feat, a record that stood over 30 years in major League Baseball. Most people conveniently forget he also led the league in strikeouts the same year with 89. I want my people swinging for the fences every day.
I kind of look at my life as an opportunity to fail, learn and succeed in any moment at any given time. Simple things like not thinking through what I'm saying before I talk to a friend may have me sticking my foot in my mouth. And. And that kind of thing feels much more like a failure to me than the time I tripped. Getting up on a stage, that just seemed like being a normal human being and I was totally fine with it. But if I don't connect well with the person I'm trying to connect with or they misunderstand my intention, which is generally really open and wanting to help people, I think that feels like the biggest Failure. But the way I like to come back from that is to look at what did I do that I could do differently next time. Because there is always, always something every single time. If I look at any time I failed and I try to point outward, I'm totally missing the point. I've got to look at what was my part and what can I change. And I don't have to fix all of it. But if I can find one thing and make that change, then I've taken advantage of that opportunity.
One of the things most speakers don't realize is that when they see a perfect speaker on stage, that's not the first time they've given that presentation. The first time they gave that presentation it was ugly. The second time it was a little less ugly. The third time it was poor. The fourth time it was mediocre. The fifth time it was pretty good. You're probably seeing that speaker give that Talk on the 20th or 30th or 40th time and it's really good and you want to jump right there and say I want to be really good. You can't get there until you have that first ugly one, that second ugly one, and nobody wants to be there and. But you have to go do this poorly before you can do it perfectly.
It's all about the learnings. Fail forward, take imperfect action. My background is as a professional performer on Broadway and film and tv. And there is no world bigger that teaches you about rejection and failing forward more than the entertainment field. How many no's I had to hear before I heard the yes. And that taught me about pushing through, persevering, leaning into to the core of who I was and not letting the nos and the rejections be a reflection of my own self worth or my talent or skill. And that was just the greatest lesson I could learn. Even if something is a no, it's not a no because I'm not good enough or what I put forward is good enough. It's just a no for now. And what can I learn from it? And I bring that with me every day.
Just keep going, just stick it out. Because sometimes for a business owner, the best thing they can do is to shift and pivot, is to stop and step back and take a new direction. Because if they go any farther down that path, it's not going to go good, it's not going to be pretty.
