Your past failures are not a liability. They are your unfair advantage
Take out a piece of paper and write down your 3 biggest failures.
Did you get fired?
Were your rejected by your top college pick.
Did you cheat on someone?
Did you get a DUI or file bankruptcy?
I know it’s tough recall that stuff but do it anyway, there’s a reason I’m asking you do it.
The reason I want you to make the list is to help you look at it in a new way. I don’t want you to relive all those events, instead I want you to stop looking them as failures you’ll never be able to recover from.
It’s hard not to think that way because there’s always somebody who wants to bring it up. Especially that guy in the mirror. He wants to be sure you don’t forget when you got in the car even though you knew you were hammered. He wants you to remember how you felt when you saw those flashing blue lights in the rearview mirror.
So what are you supposed to do with your failures?
The answer is to use those failures as your unfair advantage.
What? How is a failure an advantage?
Simple, now you know failure is rarely fatal. Which means you’ll take a risk where other guys won’t because you’re not afraid of failing. And that’s a huge advantage. It means you’re way more likely to found the next Apple, Uber, or Instagram. The guy who’s terrified to fail would never take that kind of chance because he hasn’t survived a life altering failure. You have. You know you can survive.
BUT please don’t waste your unfair advantage.
That would be a tragedy.