In life you only have to be right once.

You have probably heard that phrase countless times before. It’s been used to describe business pursuits, scientific discoveries and even finding true love. But for some reason it always felt a little off to me.

In the past I looked at the statement as a little condescending. It said “look at all these famous and successful people, they worked hard and found a lucky break. It’s easy, you can do it too if you just stopped being lazy!” I thought it lacked a compassion for the nuances of everyday struggles and personal challenges.

It wasn’t until this past year that I truly understood the validity of this statement.

Especially when it comes to business, you really only have to be right once. I’ll repeat it again so you understand its importance. You only have to be right once!

The beauty of this approach to business is it’s a total re-evaluation of how we perceive failure. Thomas Edison had over 10,000 attempts before he invented the lightbulb. Most people don’t know that, we only remember the invention. When it comes to success and failure, the brain has a funny way of highlighting the positives and downplaying the negatives.

In 2013 I watched as Trinidad James learned how to rap and six months later was signed to a multi-million dollar Def Jam deal. He went from an unknown shoe salesman in Atlanta to the covers of every major hiphop magazine across the US. Nobody cared that he had been rapping less than a year or that he didn’t have any hits besides “All Gold Everything”. He only needed to be right once in order to change his life forever.

Similarly Terio went from shooting vines with his next door neighbor to being invited as a special guest at the superbowl. Some might say that this was simply the power of social media in the digital age but I think it’s the principle of the statement in effect. It’s now more important than ever to realize that you don’t have to be tied up with your failures or shortcomings. Social media and the other tools at your disposal mean that you can create your own luck.

Whether you’re a musician, entrepreneur or humanitarian, in today’s world you are one blog post or youtube video away from success. Virality is the name of the game and the internet has made it possible to go from nothing to something overnight.

In order to maximize these opportunities you must take advantage of the free tools at your disposal. If you have a business in a certain niche I would encourage you to write everyday about your niche or specific business. It can be about challenges, future insights or something unique that people haven’t heard about it before. Try to keep it fun and make sure to write from a first person perspective. Your readers want to know there is an actual human being behind your brand.

Next you can sign up for Medium, Quora and Svbtle. These are all blogging networks that can increase the visibility of your posts and help it go viral. On Medium you can add your post to relevant collections and ask members of your community to “recommend” the article. When using Quora you can either paste your post as an answer to a relevant question after tweaking it a bit or you can setup your own blog using their blogging tool. It’s very easy to setup and I’ve found that Quora is great for engagement. Svbtle is relatively new and only recently opened its doors to the general public. The content is always interesting so if you are very knowledgeable about your business it will be beneficial to post on there as well.

You can use these same tactics for many different pursuits. Just realize that everyday you are getting closer to success. Mae West once said that “you only live once but if you do it right, once is enough”. This extends to all aspects of your life, don’t be afraid to be right.