I came across a quote from MJ DeMarco on Twitter today that I had to share with you.

“I’d rather work 80 hours a week for myself than 40 hours a week for someone else.” – MJ DeMarco

Talk about commitment, right?  How bad do you want to become a millionaire?  How badly do you want to get off the hamster wheel and get on the fast track to success?

If you could guarantee your success in life or to get that promotion, would you be willing to work twice as many hours as you are in your day job?  How about getting to the top of your division or company – are you willing to put in the hours and hard work?

It’s not all about making gobs of money and getting the limelight from the big shots in your company.  It’s about creating lasting change and making a dent in the universe.  In short, it’s about making a difference, but that often comes at a price.

Are you willing to pay it?

If you are, get on with it.  Start paying it today.  The sooner you start the hard work, the faster the rewards (and glory) come.

Warning: This post is a bit all over the place, but I couldn’t wait to “ship” it to you because the message is important.  I was inspired by the quote from Buffett and things snowballed from there.  Enjoy.

“If you succeed in everything you’re doing, you’re attempting things that are too easy” – Warren Buffett

Just wanted to write a quick post about a topic that you likely never think about – how often should you fail?  There’s tons of advice in every personal development book about the importance of failing…in order to eventually succeed.

Try, fail, try, fail, try, fail, try and succeed enormously.  Cash out and live like a King or Queen for life.

Okay, so that’s not the exact script of every personal development book, but you get the point.  But are you taking this advice either personally or in your career?

Big Companies vs. Small Companies
I think you can argue that the grass is greener on either side of the fence whether big or small companies are more able to take risks.

• Small companies can’t possibly take risks because so much is riding on making payroll each week and month.
• Big companies don’t like failure because they have investors (read: Wall Street) to answer to each and every quarter.
• Big companies and the folks that run them like to bank on the sure thing, which is why big companies don’t innovate like smaller companies.
• Small companies and the crazy/brilliant/original people they hire, are willing to take chances.  They’re willing to stick their necks out for a product or service they believe in.  But not always, right?  Lots of Mom & Pop shops go out of business because they’re too afraid to change their business model.  They’re too afraid to offer a new product line or to shake things up and piss off their loyal customers.

But enough about companies, let’s talk about you and this little idea of trying to fail more often.

Stop Trying to Please Everyone
What would happen to your company, your brand, your business if you stopped worrying so much about pleasing everyone and worrying about your ROI (return on investment) and focused instead on creating something AMAZING?

What would happen if you focused on learning from your mistakes or “wrong attempts” as Edison called them and put your head down and worked hard at finding a new path for achieving your goal?

Yeah, you’d go on to achieve some truly GREAT things in your life.  You might find yourself working a little harder, but I bet you that you’re going to LOVE the process because you’re putting your entire self into your work.

“When I was young, I observed that nine out of ten things I did were failures. So I did ten times more work.” – George Bernard Shaw

Take that First Step Today
The first step is to have the COURAGE to step out on a limb and do something that’s outside of your comfort zone.  Once you take this first step, the next one becomes that much easier.  If your first attempt fails, great, now keep moving forward.  Be relentless and don’t lose your passion for what you’re trying to accomplish.

FAIL and FAIL again.  Just pick yourself up and keep moving forward.

And one last quote that I just love because Hugh clearly toiled away for years at his craft before becoming an “overnight success.”

“Doing anything worthwhile takes forever.  Ninety percent of what separates successful people and failed people is time, effort, and stamina.” – Hugh MacLeod

Further Reading: Some more on the importance of Visualizing Failure to eventually succeed.
Okay, just one more quote from the Man in Black.  I couldn’t resist….

“You build on failure. You use it as a stepping stone. Close the door on the past. You don’t try to forget the mistakes, but you don’t dwell on it.  You don’t let it have any of your energy, or any of your time, or any of your space.” – Johnny Cash

Failure isn’t fun.  Actually, it sucks.  No one likes to fail.  I’m sure you don’t like to fall short of one of your goals.

The good news is that failure is part of the success equation.  As Model T boy once said…”Failure is only the opportunity to begin again, only this time more wisely.”

Simply put, failure is an opportunity to learn and improve your approach to whatever it is you’re trying to achieve.  The key when you fail or hit some speed bumps is to keep your eyes on the prize, your end goal, yada, yada, yada.

You get the point.  Read any success story and you’ll find they failed at something (often many things), but they didn’t let it get them down.  They kept their focus and kept charging ahead.  If you are encountering some difficulties, you and you alone determine whether you’ll get up from your failure or not.

I’m hoping you don’t let any short-term failures define your future.  Focus on that very bright future of yours and continue to go for it!

“Entrepreneurs average 3.8 failures before final success. What sets the successful ones apart is their amazing persistence.” – Lisa M. Amo

“Fall down seven times, get up eight times.” – Japanese proverb