Today’s email is Part 2 of yesterday’s discussion about doubt and fear of failure. If you missed it, check your inbox for “The simple cure for doubt and fear”.
Okay, we’re back 🙂
Let’s rewind once again to Tuesday evening, when a student at WLU Business School asked me:
“What was your ‘mindset’ for dealing with doubt and fear of failure when you were first starting your business?”
We tackled the “doubt” thing in yesterday’s email, so we’ll tackle fear of failure today with a little help from a guy named Mason.
Mason started using my basketball training programs when he was 13 years old, and became an All-State shooting guard by the time he finished high school.
Impressive, but not as impressive as what he did next:
Instead of playing college basketball, Mason decided to cut his teeth in the world of entrepreneurship.
He’s now 23 years old, and this year his business will do $15 million in sales.
I pause after telling the class this story, to let the weight of that number sink in.
Then, I continue:
This past summer, we held the DeepGame retreat at Mason’s beautiful log chalet in Utah.
And on night four, we spoke about entrepreneurship.
Everyone at the retreat knows what Mason has accomplished — they know who the big dog in the room is (and it’s not me).
So their jaws dropped a bit when Mason revealed the truth about his meteoric success.
Turns out, Mason started 8 different businesses in the span of about 3 years before he finally got one to take off.
In other words, he “failed” 8 times in a row before he finally succeeded.
To paraphrase what he said that night:
“I knew I was going to fail before I succeeded, so I decided from the start to keep on going until it worked. I failed fast, learned from it, and used what I learned to make the next venture a little better — until eventually, it worked.”
That type of grit is rare in society, but it’s the price of admission for high-level entrepreneurship.
Nobody learns to fight without taking some punches, and nobody builds a business without taking some bruises along the way.
To the point:
Those who make it in business get over “fear of failure” pretty quickly when they realize that failure is a mandatory part of the learning process that leads to success.
So that’s what I told the class at WLU business school on Tuesday night.
I hope it’s helpful for you, as well.
Alright, this has been fun 🙂
I wasn’t expecting to talk about entrepreneurship this week but then again I never really know what I’m going to write about until I begin writing.
And I’m happy this is what came through.
Next week, something new…
– T
P.S. If you’re interested:
Our 2023 retreat recordings will include the footage from night four, when Mason and I talked to the group about entrepreneurship.
(Mason’s younger brother Colton also shared some incredible details about how he’s built his own wildly successful online business at 19 years old — the Vranes are one crazy family…)
I also share some of the unknown details about my journey to building the largest online basketball training platform in the world, and generating well over 8 figures in revenue from 2010 – 2023.
So that’s coming soon, whenever the retreat recordings drop.
In the meantime, you may enjoy this recording of last year’s talk at WLU business school.
(we didn’t record it this year, since most of the same info applies)
