What is failure, anyway?

This is a question you’ve gotta ask, because while it’s talked about constantly, it’s so rarely defined, even while being praised and excused.

Failure is more than just a setback. And failure certainly isn’t just “less success than you’d like.” Those are simply the impermanent but inescapable outcomes we all experience from living in an imperfect world, and being imperfect people.

Failure is so much more final than that.

I define failure as The nonnegotiable end of an attempt. Emphasis on end. Fin. Game over.

What could failure — an end you can’t undo — possibly do for you?

Failure doesn’t increase your chances for future success.

Failure may teach you valuable lessons, sure, but it also puts an end to your ambitions and it wastes your time, effort, and emotional energy. I guarantee you you could learn those same lessons in a less dramatic way, at much lower cost.

Failure is non-deterministic.

You can’t promise yourself, well, 1 out of 10 projects succeed, so if I just fail nine times in a row, the 10th one’ll be guaranteed to work! Failure may be a tollbooth, but it certainly isn’t dues, and it’s not a negotiation.

The best way to succeed is to avoid failure altogether.

The best way to build a business — a sustainable business, the kind that makes money every month, that pays your bills, that maybe empowers you to hire help — a business that grows reasonably over time, and has a stable base… is to not fail.

That’s it. That’s the secret. To succeed, don’t fail.