Mess Up Something Today

Thomas Edison gave us nuggets of wisdom on how to build the perfect salesperson. Our problem is that we weren’t listening, because his message wasn’t in context.

“I have not failed, I have found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” 

This is how Edison described inventing the light bulb. He embraced failure and so should we. Choose to get failure out of the way. Fail on a bold scale. Learn from your failures. Use failure as your educational tool. Act with intention and understand that failure may be the outcome. See failure as good.

“Many of life’s failures are people who don’t realize how close they were to success when they gave up.” 

I hear so many good business owners overthink whether or not they can be successful. Yet, I view them as being on the verge of doing huge things with their business. Most of us will stop calling prospects after four or five attempts. Most of the time, it takes eight to get a conversation. We walk away after being so close to having that conversation. Pursue things in life as if they are meant to be. Understand that each failure pays compound interest towards your future success. Keep working on your plan regardless of how it can feel at times. It will pay off.

“There is a better way to do it—find it.” 

This was one of Edison’s mantras. There is a huge lesson in this for all of us. We need to understand that we don’t know what we don’t know. There is something out there that makes it easier. There is someone who knows more. Seek out those in the know and gather all that you can from them. They have made most of the mistakes already and can share their knowledge with you. Even though we want to blaze our own trail, the chances are pretty good that someone has already marked it for us.

Thomas Edison was an inventor. Inventing is about failing over and over again until you find success. Reinvent yourself. Pay the price. Mess up something today. You’ll be one step closer to that successful place you want to be.