Failure Might Be An Option
Those little pieces of silence. Daring us to wait till the beat drops. It’s whether or not we can hold on during those moments that often determine our future. Many of you know my story here in NYC - arrived in 2002 with $600, no job and a six month sublet that I had paid for upfront. Blah, blah, blah. But did you know that after my sublet was up I was living in the Jane Street Hotel. Mind you this was before the renovation in 2009 when the hotel (and I use that term loosely) was a $40 a night flop house with one bathroom per floor. You could say this was one of those moments between the beat. Some folks might call it a failure. And those folks might have been right at that time. But instead of defining myself at that moment, I slept with one eye open and saved my money. Saved enough after a couple of months to rent an apartment on the next block over. An apartment that I would later purchase, but that’s another story for another time. Because after the high, comes the low. The moment when you feel paper thin, that the slightest drop of moisture could weaken your very fiber. Those are the moments of your success, not failure. Because those are the times when you’re building the foundation for your next level. Lately I’ve been doing A LOT of foundation work as my business has slowed to a pace that would make a slug look speedy. But instead of wanting to speed things up, I’m taking the time to listen. To build. To regroup. To redefine. I had been an adopter of FITYMI (fake it till you make it) and of ‘Nobody gets on a sinking ship’. Both have much to do with our perceptions of success. Successful folks are the ones who weather the storm. Who ride it out and breakthrough stronger. They are the ones with battle scars shown proudly. Show your failures for what they are - the foundation of your success! And let me share a few words from Flava Flav, ‘Don’t believe the hype’. ;-) hkv