"If you never try anything new you can't fail, nor can you succeed."
The founder of IBM, Thomas Watson, understood that success meant that you must fail when he said "It's quite simple, really. Double your rate of failure. You're thinking of failure as the enemy of success. But it isn't at all." I have been thinking a lot about this quote lately as it's been quoted to me by several speakers and authors I have listened to. How exactly do you double your rate of failure?
Let go of your fear. Even the best of us can become paralyzed by our fear. The rational parts of our brains will plot, plan and analyze until all the fears have been accounted for before taking action. In essence fear can cause you to be very slow to try anything new. If you never try anything new you can't fail, nor can you succeed.
Learn a new skill. Learning new skills always includes failing at first - that's part of the learning process. As frustrating, confusing and humiliating as failing may feel the process of learning leads to new energy, excitement and unexpected lessons.
Be a problem solver. It's no mistake that some of the most successful and wealthiest people in the world are the ones who discovered problems and solved them. Being a problem solver means you become the 'go-to' person to get things done. It's ironic... In school you learn by solving problems (homework, labs, tests, etc. present problems for you to solve in order to learn the topic) but teachers don't tell you that the real lesson is not the answer its the skill of solving problems!
Failure can only happen when you actually take actions and do something. The guy with the most home-runs probably has the most strike-outs because he got up to bat more times and ultimately failed more times. If you want to double your rate of failure then release your fear, try something new and strive to solve more problems.
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