You Failed?… Good Job!

This past weekend I had a discussion with a relative of mine. To say the least, he’s been a very successful businessman throughout the years pursuing various entrepreneurial ventures. Every time I speak with him I get the urge to take out a notebook and write down our conversations. He’s very inspiring and I feel like he could make you your next million bucks if you talk to him long enough.

Anyway, this was the first time I had seen him in nearly a year and I wanted to give him a copy of my book. He and his wife played a big part in making the idea of being an author a reality in my world. As we talked about my cult experience and he gave his always motivating speech into how this book could become the next big thing in helping others, he had a short and sweet comment that stuck out to me. It gave me the push to actually pull out my phone, open the Memos App and take notes. He said,

“People who don’t make mistakes don’t do much.”

That’s so true! Look at the big names in business throughout our history, Henry Ford, Warren Buffet, Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerburg. They all took risks to develop the famous reputations behind their names. I’m sure they had people stand in their way saying “that’s impossible,” or “that’s a crazy idea.” You know, if you think about it, those people were right. It was impossible and crazy at that time. Henry Ford wanted to not only create the automobile, but wanted to do it on an assembly line in such an efficient way he could sell them to anyone.

Successful people make the impossible possible and crazy the norm.

Back to my original point, if you do research on any of these people, Fortune 500 CEOs, or our Presidents of the United States, they all made MISTAKES. Theycrossed the line, but if they didn’t then they wouldn’t have known where it was in the first place.

I made that mistake. I crossed the line religiously and adopted radical views that weren’t right. I pushed away my family and friends and had no sense of fulfillment in my life. However, by going through that I became a stronger person. I can truly appreciate my family, friends, God, Jesus, happiness (the list keeps going) for what each one truly is. By making those mistakes I live a life that is better than I ever would have before.

What are some mistakes you’ve made? Have they made you a better person? If not, how can they?