Success Through Epic Failure

Epic failure, or harnessing the power of The Epic Fail, as my friend Marc terms it, might just be your surest and quickest path to success. So what exactly is The Epic Fail? In a nutshell it is failing at failure.

Say what?

You see, years ago my friend Marc had a goal of being accepted into some prestigious, juried photography competitions. At that point he didn’t want to win. He just wanted to get in. That’s all. Just getting accepted was enough at that stage in his career.

He entered several competitions. He was rejected. And then he entered some more. He was rejected again. And some more.  Rejected once again.

At this point he started to get frustrated. Really frustrated. “Why am I failing so miserably when I am trying my best to succeed?” he thought. Then in the darkness he had a revelation: The Epic Fail.

“Maybe I’m not failing enough.”

“What if I chose to fail huge and completely and at an absurd frequency?”

“Odds are eventually I will fail at failing!”

“And then I’ll succeed.”

So that is what he did. He started entering as many contests and competitions as he could find and could afford. He entered dozens and dozens of times. And he was rejected dozens and dozens of times.

He failed on an epic level. So much so it was borderline ridiculous. And then one day a miracle. He was accepted. He got in. He succeeded.

Author-speaker-sales trainer Steve Chandler says, “Yes lives in the land of No.” From a sales standpoint, it means collect as many No’s as you can, as quickly as you can. Each No is one step closer to a Yes.

Not succeeding? Maybe you need to fail more often. Maybe you need an Epic Fail.