Fail and fail often. This seems like ridiculous advice for any entrepreneur or anyone in general that is working in uncharted territory.
But as I look at my life I have more failures than I would like to admit.
Failing at Love
Listen here, I have many, many ex’s. My wife is not going to like this section but she’ll get over it (I hope??).
Each relationship, minus a select couple handed me more of the type of person I didn’t want to be with. Some were jealous, some had substance abuse issues, some had other addictions that are too graphic to share in this post.
I kept wondering why I keep attracting losers and immoral types.
Others I failed because I was not ready for anything serious after being hurt so many times. The casualties were pretty high.
But I learned that I was the main problem. I needed to love me before I could have a stable relationship. That’s hard for man to admit sometimes.
Failing my Brothers
I wrote about this briefly in the past and it still holds true. My little brother has been in and out of jail for years. There were some key moments in his highschool days where I could have been more present. I was away at college but I still could have visited more often.
I regret not spending time with him and getting to know what was going in his life. I believe that I could have prevented him from going down the wrong road.
By the time I tried to have meaningful conversation it was too late, he was too angry, too far gone.
I failed him and as a result failed many other brothers. I see it as a trickle down effect. I wasn’t present enough to show love and I’m sure he has damaged other young men.
The cycle is broken but again….many causalities beforehand.
I learned that even a small convo, text, short call is better than nothing. I remember this failure with every young man (and woman for that matter) I mentor and if they have a cellphone number I have it. I will text even if I am busy because it’s important.
Failed Businesses
From an entrepreneurial standpoint, I fail regularly and continue to. Here are a few of my most memorable failures listed out:
- Janpro cleaning franchise
- Grass cutting business- Although I had some profitable summers it wasn’t sustainable for a 15 year old that had to pay for his own food and clothes.
- Protein review/supplement selling website. I just wasn’t patient enough to wait on the traffic. Someone else bought it and made the money off of the year or so of hard work I put into it.
- Facebook Ads Manager- I’m still trying to figure out how their algorithm really works ?♂️.
- Green Clean- Yup I tried an “all green” approach to cleaning houses/businesses. Natural products and lots of lavender. My second shot at a cleaning business. Even had a cool website.
- Wrote two ebooks and put them on Amazon. These have not necessarily failed. Matter of fact the second one has done well. The first one sold 5 copies. I just don’t think that my heart was into advertising.
- Wrote a children’s book about giant foods. Yeah it’s a long story. I went on Fiverr to get an illustrator, paid the guy for 10 pictures but they were HORRIBLE. He sent me 10 “digital” pictures, which were really a bunch of clip art nonsensical nonsense. LOL. I was disheartened. The book is collecting dust at the moment.
- I have more, like the time I thought I was a music producer selling beats…But I’ll leave that alone. Too embarrassing.
What’s interesting is that I don’t feel bad about these failed attempts. They brought me closer to realizing my strengths and honestly it’s easier to know what you like when you absolutely know what you rather not do….from experience.
When you try out things that seem cool you eventually run out of enough bad that you find the good.