Self Improvement

The Only Way To Fail Permanently Is To Stop Trying

Consider this: almost every time a football running back carries the ball, someone tackles him. And it's painful. Even the best pros don't trot into the end zone very often. In fact, if the end-zone trot is ultimate success for a running back, he knows that almost every carry will result in some sort of failure.

Walk off four big steps in your office - about four yards. Doesn't seem like a lot of territory, does it? But if a professional running back can average four yards per carry, he's a hero.

Consider this: almost every time a major-league baseball player comes to bat, he's going to come up short of a home run. Leaving aside the chance for success or failure on every single pitch, just consider that the titans of baseball hitting don't hit home runs even three percent of the time.

If a hitter gets any sort of safe hit - even a single - a third of the time, do you know what they call him? League Batting Champion.

The same is true in business. For many sophisticated selling operations, a closing ratio of ten percent can make you wealthy. That means a whopping ninety percent of the people you're going to try to happily involve in your business are going to reject you.

I've been an actor. Know what the odds are of landing a big, lucrative role on stage or screen?

I've been a writer. I once had an agent actually tell me that if I wasn't one of nine people (one of the nine names she rattled off was that of Stephen King), I had NO chance of selling fiction in the market, so tight it had become. I told her I wasn't one of those nine people, and she declined to represent me.

I've had my share of failures in life. But I'm happy to say I've landed the choice roles from time to time, I've closed more than ten percent of my sales prospects at times, and I've sold a lot of writing without being Stephen King. (I've never scored a touchdown or hit a homer, but I've also never tried to do those things.) As I've said before, there are two types of people in the world, and I call them the Victim and the Entrepreneur.

The Victim sees any failure as evidence he can't do something. The Entrepreneur sees the failures as learning opportunities, and knows that for each swing-and-miss, she's building her skill and creating a higher statistical probability that she'll smash the ball the next time.

Everybody fails. It's what you see in your failures, to a large extent, that determines your chance to succeed - and succeed big.

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by Michael D. Hume, M.S.

Michael Hume is a speaker, writer, and consultant specializing in helping people maximize their potential and enjoy inspiring lives. As part of his inspirational leadership mission, he coaches executives and leaders in growing their personal sense of well-being through wealth creation and management, along with personal vitality.

Michael and his wife, Kathryn, divide their time between homes in California and Colorado. They are very proud of their offspring, who grew up to include a homemaker, a rock star, a service talent, and a television expert. Two grandchildren also warm their hearts! Visit Michael's web site at http://michaelhume.net