Fail Faster

What a curious idea... "FAIL FASTER." I have heard the phrase many times in sales positions where it means to introduce whatever product or service I am selling to lots of people or companies in order to find the ones who want and/or need my offer. Let the rest go.

The temptation for me with a "yes" is to congratulate myself and rest, wait for the sale to complete. With a "no," I want to heal and step back to recover, stop. But Fail Faster means "yes" or "no" to keep on going, evaluate what went right or wrong in the meeting or on the call, correct and call or meet the next person. It might be more accurate to say, "Fail faster to close more sales, be successful sooner, make more money, earn time freedom." That is exciting and motivating!

Below are a bunch of inspiring quotes from famous people who experienced failures in their lives that I found in April 3, 2009 Million Blog:
Thomas Edison on the making of the light bulb, "I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work."
Albert Einstein, "Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new."
Walt Disney, "All the adversity I've had in my life, all my troubles and obstacles, have strengthened me... You may not realize it when it happens, but a kick in the teeth may be the best thing in the world for you."
Henry Ford, whose first two automobile companies failed, "Failure is only the opportunity to begin again, only this time more wisely."
Bill Gates, the richest man in the world, "Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they can't lose." and "It's fine to celebrate success but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure."
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, "I pay no attention whatever to anybody's praise or blame. I simply follow my own feelings."
Sir Winston Churchill, "Success is the ability to go from failure to failure without losing your enthusiasm."
Michael Jordan, "I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. Twenty-six times I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed."

Pretty amazing, don't you think? What I gather from this is to keep going with velocity and never give up if I am sure of my own destination. I learned to be careful whose opinion I listen to because perhaps I have a vision of a possibility they can't see. Every individual interprets life through their own filters. It requires courage to go through the failures to success because the passage is often marked by doubt, ridicule, shame, embarrassment, discouragement and despair, and is fundamentally made alone. Leaders don't travel in the pack but ahead of it... before the result is certain.