I Have Failed Over and Over in Life

Watch this 30-second video and then rejoin me below.

Did you watch it?

There is a powerful message in the video. Watching Michael Jordan, arguably one of the greatest basketball players to ever to play the game saying, 'I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.'

Whoa. Would you consider Jordan a failure?

Yep, in some ways. Missed shots, lost games, and letting down your teammate are part of an athlete's life. Just like missed opportunities, lost transactions and unhappy clients are part of your life.

Of course, Jordan also owns six NBA Championship rings.

So, is he a failure? Hardly.

But, as Jordan points out in the video, no one is perfect. No one hits every shot, every time. If you're willing to put yourself out there -- whether it's on the basketball court, the football field or the arena where real estate transactions are conducted -- you need to understand that you won't nail every shot, score every time, or complete every real estate transaction.

You can however, learn from every one of those 'failures.' Analyze each one, find the root cause, address it, and put procedures in place to prevent that sort of failure in the future.

Experiment. Clearly experimenting with a client's transaction isn't a wise idea, but you can experiment with your business model, your website, how you manage contacts, where and how you prospect. Try different things, take different shots. Some of your experiments will be utter failures (if they aren't, you are not stretching far enough) and some will be wildly successful. Most will fall in between those extremes.

And, that's all OK! You can learn as much from your failures as you can from your successes. Take those experiments that don't quite fail or succeed and change them up, trying something else.

Always be testing, always be experimenting, always be failing. That's how you learn, grow and develop.

If MJ can fail a few thousand times, you can too.