Recently I watched the 2007 movie Lions for Lambs.  In this movie a brilliant but apathetic student asks his professor (Robert Redford), “Is there any difference in trying but failing, and simply failing to try – if you end up in the same place anyway?”  He was attempting to justify taking the safe route; never really taking a stand or trying anything big.

What do you think?  Do you cringe at trying something big because of the possibility of failure?  What if you tried for the promotion but failed to get it, started a business but lost your investment, or tried a MLM system but got nothing other than a garage full of vitamins – are you somehow better off?  Or would your life have been better if you had avoided the hassle and the disappointment altogether?

Yes, I’m hearing from people every day who tried and failed.  One gentleman lost $11 million in a gas and oil business.  Another lost $3.2 million inherited from his grandmother in a failed retail clothing business.  A close friend lost $24 million in a failed real estate development.  Research shows that if you are under thirty years old, there is 90% chance you will be fired sometime in the next twenty years.  Bernie Marcus was fired from a job as manager of theHandyDanImprovementCenter, then went on to start Home Depot.  In 1988 I experienced a horrible “failure” in business – having to borrow a car to drive to start generating income again.  Should I have avoided the pain and anguish by taking a safer route, or was that experience the necessary catalyst for learning the principles that launched the success I enjoy today?

My theory is that you will be a brighter, better person for trying something big – even if you “fail.”

What has your life experience taught you about trying big things?  Have you learned to keep a low profile to avoid failure?  Or have you found that “failure” leads to bigger successes?

No More Dreaded Mondays tells the story of my failures and provides principles for coming back to success.

“Set your goals ridiculously high and you will fail above everyone else’s success.” - James Cameron, Academy Award-Winning Director

I love the thought here.  If you decide you are going to run three marathons this year – and you fail by only running two, you have still accomplished more than 99% of the people in the world.

• What if you had a goal of writing two books this year but only completed one?
• What if you wanted to reduce your cholesterol by 50 points but only cut it down by 40?
• What if you wanted to compose a new song a month but finished the year with only 10 great songs?
• What if you set as a goal to increase your income from $50,000 to $100,000 but only hit $85,000 by December 31st?
• What if you wanted to pay cash for a $15,00 car by November 15th but you accumulated only $14,000 by that date?
• What if you wanted the greatest marriage in the world but you only eliminated 80% of the painful points in the marriage you have now?

Do you have a goal that is so “ridiculously high” that even if you only hit 50% of it you will still bypass everyone else?

Failure comes not in setting a goal and not hitting it – it is in not setting a goal at all and being stuck in sameness.

“A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable but more useful than a life spent in doing nothing .” — George Bernard Shaw

What we see as failure may actually be progress.

Thomas Edison was an inquisitive child at an early age.  He attended school for only three months where the teacher labeled him as “too stupid to learn anything” quite possibly because of his early hearing problems.  His mother removed him from school and decided to teach him at home.  She encouraged him to read and he quickly developed a great interest in science, especially chemistry.  At 10, he set up a small laboratory in the basement of the family home.  At the age of 20, Edison set up a laboratory in Menlo Park, New Jersey where he spent his time a full-time inventor.

Within two years, he had 40 different projects going and was applying for over 400 patents a year.  In 1878, he boldly announced to the world that he would invent an inexpensive electric light that would replace the gas light.  Often ridiculed, Edison tried over ten thousand different experiments before he finally demonstrated the first working light bulb on October 21, 1879. When a reporter asked, “How did it feel to fail 10,000 times?’ Edison replied, “I didn’t fail 10,000 times.  The light bulb was an invention with 10,000 steps.”

Who could ever imagine where we might be today if Thomas Edison had not persevered after ten thousand failures?  It’s OK to fail.  From every failure comes the seed of an even greater possible success.  Robert Schuller compares this process to a high jumper approaching the bar.  If he/she always clears the bar, we really don’t know how high that person can jump.  It’s only when they trip the bar that we have a true measure of their success.  Without failure, we can never grow to our full potential.  Rick Patino, the great basketball coach says, “Failure is the fertilizer for success.” Embrace failure as a legitimate step in the right direction.

A few years ago I got to taste some of that fertilizer for myself.  I owned a 4,000 member health club, an auto accessories business and was very involved in our community and church.  Then some banking procedures were changed and I found myself in a frightening situation.  My businesses were sold at a fraction of their value and I was left with seemingly insurmountable IRS tax bills and supplier invoices.  Although advised to declare bankruptcy, I found it impossible to walk away from even my verbal promises.  Yes, the return to any real success took much longer than I ever expected.  But I am convinced that the journey through that was the training ground for my success today.

Have your “failures” gotten you closer to success – or have you become convinced you are a “failure”?

I don’t know of anything that can cripple hope and the possibility of success more than indecision.

I get rather impatient with some people when the mortgage is due, the children are hungry and the lights are about to be cut off and they are still just praying about what to do.  I know what to do; quit hiding behind your pious excuse for inactivity – and start moving.

“Indecision and delays are the parents of failure.” — George Canning, English statesman

One of Zig Ziglar’s famous stories is of a childhood neighbor lady who pulled some biscuits out of the oven that were no thicker than silver dollars.  When little Zig asked what happened, the cook laughed and said, “Well, those biscuits squatted to rise, but they just got cooked in the squat.”

I see people who have gotten “cooked in the squat.” They are going to do something just as soon as they gather all the necessary information.  But weeks, months and then years slip by.  Protected in the safety of gathering more information they miss new opportunities all together.  A client told me he had gone to work at the local bank – just as a temporary position until he could do a little research about which career field to really pursue.  Guess what?  That was 17 years ago and he’s still at the bank.  The acceptable illusion of still getting ready robbed him of 17 years of his life.

When do you have enough knowledge to start something new?  When you decide to take action! The baby eagle learns how to fly as he is heading straight toward the rocks below, not while sitting on the edge of the nest.  The business owner learns while hiring, buying, and making mistakes more than while sitting in a classroom.  The unemployed person approaches success while knocking on doors, making phone calls, and getting repeated rejections, not while scanning the Internet and reading textbooks.

“There is no more miserable human being than the one in whom nothing is habitual but indecision.”  William James

Don’t get “cooked in the squat.” It will cripple you!

Dan, I would like to hear more of your thoughts on failure.  Since most of us who are trying to live a life with “No More Mondays” are probably going to fail several times, what does a “successful failure” look like?  How much should we risk in pursuit of our dreams?  As you often say, we must not be paralyzed by our fear of failure but I doubt you would suggest that we risk our marriages, health, homes, etc. while seeking to reach our goals.  What do you think is the right balance in this area?  Thanks, Eric

Great question Eric.  And I believe there really are “successful failures” in business.  That is not an oxymoron. Napoleon Hill once said: “Failure seems to be nature’s plan for preparing us for great responsibilities.”

So part of the issue is – Do you want to do something great – in any area?  If you are content with mediocrity in your life, then you will try to protect yourself from any failure.   Just recognize the trade-off.  

But here’s an important distinction:  It’s not just what you do in a job or your business that will identify you as a success or a failure.

• Not having “date nights” or saying “I love you” daily will put your marriage at risk of failure.
• Spending 65 hours a week at your job will put your emotional well-being at risk of failure.
• Eating Twinkies and Big Macs and not exercising will put your health at risk of failure.
• Financing a car or paying more than the equivalent of one month’s income in cash will put your financial health at risk of failure.
• Spending less than an hour a day on spiritual and personal development sets you up for the risk of failure.
• Expecting a company to continue giving you a paycheck puts you at risk of failure.

These are ways people set themselves up for “failure” totally aside from whether they pursue a No More Mondays work option.  The counterpart to this is, if you are successful in all the areas mentioned above, then “failure” in a business venture is not crippling.  It is simply one area in which to readjust and start again.  I’ve heard that Richard Branson will not invest in any company unless the person in charge has failed at least twice.  I’m convinced that had I not had a major failure in business a few years ago – leaving me with a $430,000 loss – that I would have continued with an unrealistic view of my golden touch.  I think I needed that experience to open my eyes – not to make me cynical, but to help me create a more solid business structure going forward.

I’m also totally convinced that someone who commits suicide upon losing a job or business had neglected excellence and success in the more important areas of life.  Having rich deposits in relationships, spiritual well-being, health and social connections act as a buffer in carrying you through any temporary business failure.  Whether you have a job, volunteer your time or start the next Microsoft – none of these alone will determine the success of your life. 

So here’s what I recommend for risking in a No More Mondays work option:

• Take responsibility for where you are – whether good or bad.
• Continue making deposits of success in the physical, spiritual, personal development, and relationship areas of your life.
• Pursue work that engages your passions as well as your abilities.
• Weigh the financial requirements very carefully.  Personally, I have seven different areas of revenue generation in my small business.  That way if one “fails” it’s not devastating. 
• Recognize that a temporary financial loss does not need to be the end of your business venture. It’s probably just a wake-up call, helping you to readjust for bigger successes in the future. Make the adjustment and know that you are now closer to ultimate success.

So Eric, recognize that many people “risk failure in their marriages, health, homes, etc.” while desperately trying to hang on to a “real job.”  Identifying your passion, creating a careful plan of action, and moving into a No More Mondays work venture may be the very thing to reduce risk and increase your opportunity for true success.  Thanks for asking.

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“Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs,

even though checkered by failure…than to rank with those poor

spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live

in a gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat.”

                                    -  Theodore Roosevelt

A day of Sabbath is more than just a spiritual suggestion – it’s a necessity for balance and restoration.

A reader writes:

Hi, Dan. I feel like I am on the verge of a breakdown. I want to take a short leave of absence from my job to try to get things under control. How do I handle this without my employer thinking I am cuckoo? I just need a break. I am a wife, mother, work full-time, take care of an elderly parent, you name it. ~Signed, Very Overwhelmed in Georgia

Is it “cuckoo” to want a break from the typical worklife?  In the “busyness” of modern life, I see people who have lost the rhythm between activity and rest.  “I am so busy.”  We say this as a badge of honor, as if our exhaustion were a trophy, and our ability to withstand 70 hour weeks a mark of real character.  We convince ourselves that the busier we are, the more we are accomplishing and the more important we must be.  But is this really so?  Does more activity really mean more accomplishment?  To be unavailable to friends and family, to miss the sunsets and the full moons, to blast through all our obligations without time for taking a deep breath – this has become the model of a successful life.

The Sabbath was designed as more than just a day to rush to church, cram into a restaurant, and then hurry home to get all those odd jobs completed before Monday.  Hopefully it’s a day of rest for you.  Embrace Sabbath days and times in your life.  Wisdom, peace, creativity and contentment will grow in those times.  Take a walk, give thanks for simple things, bless your children, take a bath with music and candles, turn off the telephone, pager, TV and computer – carve out those times for restoration and spiritual breathing.

University professors typically get every seventh year off – to think, write, travel and re-energize.  Pastors should get the same.  In Mosaic law, every seventh year, the land was to remain untilled to give it time to rebuild its resources. 

Maybe your job loss or business failure is really an unexpected “sabbatical.” 

And incidentally, in today’s times your company may welcome your request for a 1-2 month sabbatical.  Rather than seeing you as “cuckoo” they may embrace the reprieve in paychecks and see you as a more valued employee.