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The real tragedy is when you don’t try.
“Someday” is the saddest word — it might as well mean never.
I know that failure isn’t a dirty word. In startup circles, I often feel that it’s almost admired. We want to see failures who have turned their shortcomings into successes somewhere down the line. That’s why we idolise entrepreneurs who have genuinely screwed up only to find a way to become winners in the third act.
I think it’s clear that failure is no longer a tragedy for most folks.
When you fail at something, you don’t need to feel too s**tty about it. There are about a thousand quotes, platitudes, and cliches about failure that you can fall back on to help you recover.
We’ve reached a point where many of us are learning that failing, falling, crashing, and burning are all a part of any journey to accomplishing anything. That’s good. I love it. I love that we’ve blown past some of the stigmas around making mistakes.
But the real obstacle that stops us from moving forward has nothing to do with failure, the genuine hurdle that takes out most entrepreneurs, dreamers, founders, writers, game-changers, future Basketball superstars, would-be musicians, painters, rappers, runners, programmers, visionaries and potential astronauts has never been a failure.
