What If I Fail?

 “We’re supposed to do scary. Without scary, we don’t get to be brave.”

                                                                                    

                                                                                                                       Quicken Loans Commercial Script

Failure is not fun! Let’s agree on that! The fear of failure is a scary prospect.

For a moment, let’s imagine a world without the possibility of failure ever happening. Perhaps you’re heard the question before, from motivational speakers. It goes like this: “If you knew that you couldn’t fail, what great endeavor would you undertake?” Wow! That sure opens a lot of possibilities, doesn’t it? You’d be forgiven, as you face the current and real issues of your life, if for a moment you wished there was no chance of failure.

I’m going to suggest, however, that without the chance for failure, there would be no great endeavors for you, or for anyone else for that matter. Think about it for a moment. If the world simply didn’t include the possibility of failure, not only would failure NOT exist for you, it wouldn’t exist for anyone else, either. And, we would have a far less interesting, exciting, and enjoyable world as a result.

Don’t believe me? Well, Imagine a football game, or a marathon, or a basketball contest, where every participant knows that he or she is going to be the winner, or on the winning team. Imagine a Kentucky Derby, where every jockey knows that they are aboard the winning horse. Imagine that prettiest girl on your high school or college campus. Every boy or young man there knows that he will be the one to get her hand. I almost wrote “win” her hand, but that implies a contest of some kind, where there might be winners and losers. In our imaginary world without failure, that possibility doesn’t exist. Remember?

And, therein lies the problem of doing away with even the possibility of failure. If life worked at all, it would certainly be confusing, at the least. All of the fun and excitement would be drained out of life if we knew, for instance, that our team would always win; game after game; year after year; season after season. But, so would the other school alumni, and so would your neighbor down the street…you know, the one who used to taunt you when your team would lose? He won't be doing that any longer, in our "world without failure".

Who would attend the annual Bowl games, if the outcome was always pre-ordained that both teams would win? The fun…the excitement…the memories…the “worth”…even the tailgate parties are based on the premise and excitement of witnessing our team as winners, with the bitter-sweet possibility and awareness that our team could lose, too. Just as you might fail to reach your goal.

So, back to the issue at hand, which is your goals, and the possibility of your ultimate success in life. The question that the motivational speaker asks is a good one, but the conclusion is false. The conclusion is that you should go ahead and start out to achieve your goal, as if failure is not a possibility. But, failure is a real possibility. We all know that. The possibility of failure shouldn’t immobilize us, however. That’s why we’ve always stressed having worthy goals, doing the proper research on your goal, obtaining the necessary training and education to achieve your goal, planning, moving forward, taking in the feedback you get from results, and continuing to move toward that which you want to achieve. And, yes, we have stressed starting out in the direction of your goal immediately. Fear, along with simple procrastination, have probably thwarted more achievements in life than there are grains of sand on the beach. How many products weren’t launched, because the developer was afraid? How many relationships never happened, because of fear of rejection? How many great books, or paintings, or symphonies, or movies were never created, because the author could not face the possibility of embarrassment or failure?

Without the chance of failure, who would celebrate your achievement? Without the possibility of disappointment, how would you ever feel your own worth? In any endeavor, whether undertaken against a team of 6-foot, corn-fed, grid iron behemoths, or simply against our own self-image in front of our family, there will be a outcome, and there is always the possibility of it being failure.

There’s nothing wrong with being fearful of failure, as long as it doesn’t paralyze us, or keep us from achieving something truly wonderful and worthy. Yes, it’s scary. But, as the script for the Quicken Loans commercial reads, it’s supposed to be that way. Without scary, how would any one of us ever be brave?

I hope you have the opportunity to be brave….today!