I can guarantee that you will fail

Many of us have stopped dreaming. Life has a way of beating us up and getting us to settle for what we think we can get, based on what we have received in the past. When we are young we dreamed impossible dreams, but as we get older life’s vicissitudes turned us into “realists.”

A girl dreams of being a doctor, but because of the hard work involved, the distractions of everyday life and the lack of money, she settles on being a nurse. A young man dreams of owning a Porsche but then, again, everyday life gets in the way. A baby arrives, expenses mount, and he has to work two jobs just to make ends meet. He starts telling himself that he doesn’t really need a Porsche to get him from Point A to Point B, so he settles for something “realistic”. Slowly but surely, “life” conflicts with our dreams, forcing us to decide how much we wanted them in the first place.

Each time we settle, we lose a tiny little bit of our ourselves until one day, without realizing it, we are living a life quite different from what he had originally hoped, one of quiet desperation. I know, I have been there a few times myself. Fortunately, I have found ways to spend only short periods of time in the valley of despair and I will show you how you can too.

If you’re young and have still not faced failure, I guarantee that eventually you will. Failure is life’s way of shaping us and building resilience in us. If you have been around a few years, you know what I mean: you’ve had your share of knockdowns. But, like a boxer, you keep getting back up; you learn to win a little bit more until that day when you are the one raising your arms in victory. You didn’t give up.

I worry about those who have, because, without hope, we are lost. What kind of life would one lead if, after a car accident, we never got back behind the wheel again? What kind of life would it be if, after heartbreak, we never loved again? The same thing applies to being in business or investing. We win some and we lose some. However, we lose them all if we never play again.

Baseball players get paid a lot of money when you consider how many times they strike out. But do they ever stop swinging? Not a chance! Hockey players get paid a lot of money even though they miss the net most of the time. But do they ever stop shooting the puck? No way! And when a player hits a slump he works even harder, shoots the puck even more, knowing that, one day, the puck is going to find its way to the back of the net and everyone will be on their feet cheering.

Whatever you do, don’t quit dreaming and don’t quit trying. You could literally be just one shot away from scoring your goal; just one swing away from your home run.