In this concise motivational talk, Leila Hormozi explains why setbacks are essential for long‑term success and how deliberately seeking imperfect, uncomfortable situations can accelerate confidence and skill growth. She argues that most people aim for perfect conditions when setting goals, but true progress comes from embracing adversity. Hormozi illustrates the concept with concrete examples: losing weight while still eating out, traveling, and socializing; deliberately scheduling difficult conversations; and repeatedly presenting to improve public‑speaking ability. By repeatedly exposing oneself to short‑term setbacks, one gathers evidence of capability, builds resilience, and shortens the path to lasting success. The video ends with a call to action to apply this mindset and subscribe for more content.
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All right, in this video what I want to talk about is something really short and sweet and to the point, which is setbacks being necessary for success. I was on a walk this morning and I was thinking about just some different things I'm trying to achieve right now with life and with business, and thinking about perceived setbacks. And I know I always find myself when I perceive a setback that might be in close proximity to me or might be in the near future and I can see it coming, um, you know, I, I subconsciously, I always want to avoid it, right? I don't remember where I read this, but it was maybe 2 years ago in a book. And it was talking about the fact that setbacks are necessary for long-term success. And that thought came back into my mind. And I think that that has been one of the most powerful beliefs that has served me. Because every time now I see a setback, I'm like, oh, it's a chance to prove to myself all the reasons why I can do this. It's a chance to prove to myself to accumulate more evidence of why I can do this, right? Because a setback is a setback and everyone has them. And anyone that's successful or non-successful doesn't have any more or less. Typically, it's just how we respond to them, right? And so each setback is a chance for you to respond in a way that shows yourself and proves to yourself that you can actually do this, right? And so now I've trained myself to really think like, I'm going to actually be excited for the setbacks. I'm going to be excited for the adversity because this is how I prove to myself. It's like, in your mind, right, when you set a goal, you typically put all these like perfect conditions around the goal. It's like, well, in order to achieve this goal, I'm going to need to do all these 7 things, and I'm going to have to have these perfect circumstances. But then we all know that that's not actually how it goes in reality. Like, there are no perfect circumstances. And so we know this subconsciously, yet we hope for perfect circumstances. And so now what I've realized is like, I should hope for imperfect circumstances. In fact, I should seek out imperfect circumstances faster? Because if I do so, I will cement that new belief in my mind that I'm capable of doing this much faster than if not, right? And so like a good example would be weight loss, right? Most people when they're trying to lose weight, they go ahead and they're like, I'm going to avoid eating out, I'm going to avoid going and doing things with friends. They're going to avoid doing all of these things. They're going to avoid traveling, all this stuff, right? But like what if you said instead of avoiding all those things, like I'm going to lose weight and I'm going to eat out every day and I'm going to see my friends 3 times a week. And I'm going to travel and go to a different country, right? All whilst losing weight. Well, then, like, how much more confident do you think you would be in your ability to lose weight if you just quickly face those adverse circumstances willingly? Right. And I think a lot of us can wait until those circumstances come to us and then we can try. And it's usually like a slight anxiousness and then acceptance and then we overcome them. But what if you were to seek them out? Right. Because if short-term setbacks are what create long-term success, then why would you not set like seek them out to then create the long-term success and the immunity to feeling that way ever again faster, right? Like if you want to lose weight and lose it forever, then you want to seek out all of those situations, like the worst of them. If you're like, I can't handle, you know, losing weight and not eating cake, then like you should eat, you should put yourself in a room with all of the cake, right? It's just exposing yourself. And so that's what I found works for me, whether it's in business. I think a really good example of this, like having hard conversations, like If you haven't had a lot of them, go ahead and line them up. You know what I mean? You're like, oh, but I get so nervous and I like can't sleep the night before. I'm sweating and I'm anxious and like, I just sound like an idiot. And it's like, cool, then do 7 in a row and see how you feel. Right. And do them with the people who make you even the most nervous. I think another example of that in business would be something to the extent of, you know, maybe presenting in front of people. I had a great director who was really great at her job, but she was terrible at presenting. And so I was like, cool, we're just going to do one presentation every 2 to 3 weeks until you get great at it. She was like, why would I do that? And I was like, why would you practice but not then set yourself up to learn faster, fail faster, and then accumulate the skill faster? And so I think it kind of goes with that understanding that in order to have those setbacks to create the long-term success, you have to be willing to suck, right? But then you suck a little less every time and you start gaining this confidence. And the reason that you gain confidence is because you gain evidence of your ability to overcome short-term adversity to to attain that long-term success. I hope that's useful for you. I was just thinking about it in context with a lot of goals that I've been setting for myself lately, um, in the context of seeking out challenges in accordance with my goals so that I can prove to myself faster that I can do what I'm setting out to do. And so it's purposely making yourself uncomfortable, um, so that you can have that satisfaction and that confidence at a faster rate than anybody else. So if you like this video, go ahead, hit subscribe. I will see you in the next one.
