Author: Garth Beyer

Without a doubt those who fail learn more and become smarter, more caring, more connective people than those who avoid circumstances where failure hangs out.

Succumbing yourself to risk is as easy as avoiding it. Here are some ideas that will help you fail better, fail more often, and in turn become a better person because of it

Take fewer shortcuts.

Raise your hand first.

Accept more responsibility (even if you have to give it to yourself).

Be detailed about what success by your hands will look like.

Get others involved in your pursuits. A team trumps a single player every day.

Focus on what you can influence and empower and bring your best self to. The external doesn’t matter if you can’t influence it. Note it, sure, then get back to the real work.

Last but not least, call yourself out when you fail. Own the failure. Not only learn from it, but share the lessons with others. You’ve failed so others don’t have to fail in the same way. They’ll look up to you for this. Not down.

 

Stay Positive & Go Fail A Bit

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It doesn’t take many words to invoke emotion.

“I love you.”

“You’re right.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Screw you.”

“Shhh”

If you find yourself using a lot of words for the details on your packaging, your “about” page or your FB statuses and responses, then it’s likely you’re working to reason with the target.

Perhaps, like many, you believe if she could just see the facts, that the fine points would be enough to convince her to buy your product.

Sadly, while that’s the case for a few in this world, it’s not the case for all of your target, especially as you continue to develop a better product and build a tribe.

Using the right words, words that resonate, not just persuade (and with that, using fewer words) begins by answering a couple of questions:

1) How does she feel before she uses your product or service?

2) How does she want to feel after using it?

In other words, why is she considering you in the first place? The answer to this is not the solution you offer. The answer to this is the emotional shift she is willing to pay money to make. What is that emotional shift from and to?

When we understand our targets ambition and predilection, then we can begin to use language that evokes the desired emotion.

Then we can finally quit rambling, using thesaurus for more descriptive and detailed words, and trying to persuade with paragraphs when all it takes is a few right words.

 

Stay Positive & Words Matter, Fewer Words Matter Most

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Every artist, no matter the industry, will have to decide early on in their careers if they will give what the client or customer asked for or if they will give them something they are proud to have their name on.

A client may not ask for metrics to support the strategy you’re putting into action. Do you share the metrics that support it? What if they don’t support it?

If a customer at a restaurant orders a four-cheese ravioli, do you deliver just that? Or do you deliver an experience that’s worth talking about outside the restaurant?

A fair-goer is starving and you’ve got one last soft pretzel that’s not soft at all. Do you sell it because the customer wants it? Or do you say it will be 5 more minutes while you make a fresh batch?

Do you quickly throw together a book cover design for an author who doesn’t care about design? Or do you design a book cover that meets your high standard of excellence even if you’re not getting paid for it, even if people tell you the author won’t care, even if you know there’s a chance it’ll get scrapped in the end?

Here’s one more fork in the road for you: if a client or customer tells you that they won’t do business anymore with you after this last project…do you still give it your all?

Answers and attitudes to these questions dictate whether you’ll be a starving artist or a successful one.

 

Stay Positive & If You Won’t Put Your Name On It, Consider Not Shipping It Until You Do

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The president of a super successful multi-million dollar company recently told me much of what he has done with the company has been serendipitous.

He would start with an idea, and then unique and helpful (unsought-after) support would arise that made the idea better and wildly different than what he started with.

Soon he would find himself doing something no competitors were doing with little effort because of the serendipitous support.

What’s noteworthy is that he didn’t have these excellent ideas himself, nor did he act on them alone.

Some still see serendipity and momentum as a chicken or the egg situation. It’s not.

You start, you build momentum, and all these serendipitous moments launch you forward.

But you have to start.

 

Stay Positive & Why Wait For Serendipity When You Can Evoke It?

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There’s a problem with total differentiation.

When you go into a market with the idea that there’s no one else like you, that you’re completely different on all fronts, that there’s no alternative choice for the consumer, you’re left without an anchor.

You’re left without a measurement tool. (Your consumers are too!)

You’re left without the potential of stealing share rather than creating share. (Creating share is much more difficult, while stealing share requires you to be a level about crap.)

You’re left without an external challenge. (The best ideas often come from some sincere competition.)

You’ll attract a few when you’re completely unique, but you make it insanely more difficult to reach the most.

A little competition is a good thing.

 

Stay Positive & You Don’t Need To Be New To Be Remarkable

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About 10 years ago, burning bridges was fairly easy to do.

There was a lot of “X person is trying to screw me over. I’m going to screw him over.”

There was definitely a lot of “this person sucks at doing what they are supposed to do, I’m leaving them to go do it myself.”

The increasing number of burnt bridges is one reason why there were so many new businesses started 10 years ago.

As time waned, businesses quickly realized that they shot themselves in the foot when they burned the bridge to start their own business because they didn’t just burn a bridge between themselves and one other person, they burned the bridges of all those that one person had bridges with.

Talk about a quick realization of stupidity.

Add the internet in and it’s no wonder everyone became determined to connect and build more bridges.

Here’s the lesson: it’s a smaller world than it has ever been.

That’s what the connection economy is about. It’s about making something so vast seem so small and personal and intimately shared.

In the connection economy, there’s no winning when you burn a bridge.

In the connection economy, we compromise when something doesn’t go the way we want, when we begin feeling uncomfortable in a relationship, when we get defensive.

We don’t burn bridges.

 

Stay Positive & Connect, Collaborate, Compromise, And Most Importantly, Overcome

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