This Might Not Work: The Importance of Failure (Part II)

First off, I have to say thank you to everyone who read, commented, liked, and especially shared Part I of “This Might Not Work”. The feedback on failure was so encouraging!

Then, today, I went back and reread that post to get back on track for part two… and OH the typos! I swear I read that thing 800 times before hitting “publish.” We’ll chalk that up to the nerves of taking a first major step. (or wine. it could also have been the wine). Apparently instead of “editing” I was actually “deleting major parts of sentences.”

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Good news…. I started off with a mistake right away. I could go ahead and pretend that was intentional, as though to prove a point about failure and mistakes. Instead, I’ll say it was an accident…. an oversight… which still proves my point.

Success!

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That being said, I’ve updated Part I. Now you can share it without feeling shameful for promoting such horrible typos. See how I do nice things for you?

Some of the feedback from Part I was about you being in agreement that kids today MUST experience failure (or at least see it modeled) and know it’s okay.  Other feedback was in the form of feeling inspired to try something new yourself.  A few people knew someone who truly needed to read that message of the importance of failure.  I hope it spoke to more of you than commented.  As a child who grew up only “trying” things I knew would be successful, I know for sure this message just has to be put out in the world.  We (yes, YOU) have to go out on a limb.  We have to try something new. Plus, it’s good for us, too.

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Anywho (there’s that word again), here’s the story of the other part of that incredibly inspirational day last Wednesday when everything simply came together for me… and don’t get hung up on the use of the word “Bible.”  I promise I won’t preach. You’re going to want to know this part of the story.

If you didn’t read Part I of this post, you might want to double-back that direction right about now.

Part II starts here.

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Awhile ago, when I was first being introduced to network marketing, I was also introduced to Jim Rohn and his words on “Building Your Network Marketing Business.” (I’ve added a link to the video at the bottom of the post).I truly got a kick out of this man… in fact, I made my husband listen to it in the car one evening, even though he has zilch to do with network marketing. I won’t go too much into network marketing now (#bepatient), other than to say the goal I missed last week was a network marketing goal for my side business. I love my side biz. I was very disappointed I missed my goal.

That morning, I sat on my couch with my coffee just like every morning. I read the daily reading on my Bible app, just like every morning (fine, most mornings. I’m working on it, people). The reading was the one referenced by Jim Rohn in his network marketing lesson.

Then he told them many things in parables, saying: “A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.”

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The farmer… the drive to continue sowing… the perseverance and grit of that farmer… the continuing to sow despite failure and setbacks and seeds that withered and died… the incredible success of that farmer after so much failure… I’m telling you, it all came together that morning for me!

We can leave the sower and the meaning of the parable up to interpretation (I definitely find other meaning in this parable as well, and I’m certainly not comparing a network marketer to Jesus, so put your offended face aside and keep reading). However, I do appreciate Jim Rohn’s analogy…and how I had that perfectly-timed reminder of the analogy Wednesday morning…

Keep trying. Don’t lose sight of the goal. Not everything goes the way we want it to go on the first try. Often, it takes more than one or two or three tries before we get something right. Those tries, those failures, can’t be the end of it. If we quit, that’s not a good message. It just isn’t. It doesn’t feel good, either. Easy, yes. Good, no.

I’m not here to preach to you about how a Bible reading changed my life (#toeachhisown #itspoketomewhenineededit). I’m here to tell you I woke up last Wednesday disappointed and with a feeling of failure. Then, I had a reminder about the importance of perseverance and grit while I had my coffee. Then, I went to work (where I teach perseverance and grit). On my way to work, I heard a message from a Social Media Examiner podcast that spoke to me about perseverance, grit, and the idea of embracing failure. None of these messaged used the word “perseverance” or “grit.”  But I heard them.

Now I’m blogging about my journey to being quietly confident. I hope you’ll stay with me on this journey because it speaks to you. We’ll go together. Or maybe you’ll just come to be supportive. That’s fine, too… because I know along the way, you’ll try something that scares you. And I’ll be here to help.

In fact… action step time (it’s the teacher in me… it can’t be helped). Set a goal. Not a dinky goal you know you can accomplish just to make yourself feel better. Set a scary goal. And then, tell it to someone. That’s the important part. Pick someone you think will support you, yet hold you accountable. I did. I decided to write a blog, and I told someone I was going to do this.

It’s the start of a new month. Do it now. Be purposeful. Be brave. Be vulnerable. Be confident with me. You don’t have to be loud about it. You can be quietly confident, too. Just tell that one person. You can tell me if it’s too scary to tell anyone else.  We can work toward our goals together. In fact, you can just comment “done,” and I’ll know you’ve set your goal and told someone.

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It might not work.  But it might.

I’ll check back with you soon to see how it’s going  😉

Post-blog note:

Here is Jim Rohn’s lesson on “Building Your Network Marketing Business.”  If you’re in network marketing or thinking of starting a small business, I encourage you to listen to the entire lesson.

If you’re not into network marketing, but still want to hear Jim Rohn’s take on this parable and perseverance, start listening to the link below just before the 25th minute of his lesson.  (yes, I just listened to it AGAIN).

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