I recently listened to a podcast by Tim Ferriss where he interviews Jocko Willink, an ex-Navy Seal, now author and CEO of a leadership and management consulting company. One of Jocko’s responses to a question on the podcast really made me think about failure and how it equates to success. Although his answer mostly relates to the military, it can be transcribed to the business world, or personal life, just the same. It made me think about my own fears, challenges, and my successes.
Question: “How do you shut out internal doubt and negative chatter from your head during critical, must-do moments”?
Answer: “Internal doubt is not a bad thing. It is a form of humility and humility is good. And the fear of failure is the thing that keeps you up at night preparing. It’s the thing that’s not going to let you cut corners and it’s that little voice that says do everything you can to be ready. And I’m ok with that. If I give everything I can, if I prepare as hard as I can, practice as much as I can, do every rehearsal, and I do everything I can, and I still come up short – good. I’m gonna learn from it, and I’m gonna get better”.
As a young and uneducated real estate investor, I made a very large mistake that cost me over six figures. I got involved with an investor who created fake mortgage loans and eventually found himself in jail after he was charged with mortgage fraud. Unfortunately mine, plus millions of other investor dollars were not recovered. Obviously this put a kink in my plan to become a successful real estate entrepreneur…and it caused a lot of internal doubt and negative chatter.
But what it also did was force me to really learn the ins and outs of mortgage note investing. I knew if I was going to ever get back into the investing game, I needed to get smart on the subject. After multiple years of educating myself, I now know what to look for and how to properly analyze and invest in mortgage notes. Additionally, as a part of the legal battle to get my money back, I made many contacts that properly invest in mortgage notes – the legal way. And I have since built quite the network of mortgage note investors and a team that includes an attorney, a broker, a title company, and a servicing company. I took my failure, learned from it, and turned it into an opportunity for success.
It is important to understand that failure, and the negative emotions that come with it, may actually offer opportunities for future triumph. This concept is most important to those that can’t get over their fear to take the leap of faith towards a new business opportunity. Don’t let the fear of failure overwhelm you and overcome your opportunity to take action! Think about the worst-case scenario, stay humble, get educated, then take action. I bet the worst-case scenario isn’t really that bad after all…and it might even make you better. It did for me.
As Jocko says, “get your head in the game, and get after it”.
Written by: Stuart Grazier