Failure Is Just As Important As Success

I failed my way to success

It's funny to me how people are such groupies for success. I mean, of course it's natural to have groupies of all sorts when you're successful, but these people just blindly follow you when you're successful. but when you fail it's like they don't even know you. No return phone calls, no more invites to the parties, no more "likes" on the Facebook feed, no more of that. It's like you all of a sudden have some sort of incurable disease, it's laughable at best. People tend to make me sick, when I was a failure and when I'm successful, they're all the same.

When I experienced a bit of success, my whole world changed around me. I was invited to all the parties, always invited out for drinks with the white collars, all of a sudden my daily activities were of interest to everyone. "Hey what are you up to?" or "Hey where are you? meet us up at (insert high priced bar) at 9". Not going to lie, it feels good, scratch that, it feels great. Being somebody. I'm the man, fuck yeah. When I'm showing off my brand new Louis Vuitton wallet on my Facebook news feed, or when I'm showing the world my new rose gold Michael Kors watch, people are all of a sudden my biggest fan.

But rewind time, back when I had failed. My company wasn't doing so hot, no sales, twitter was pretty much naked, Tumblr was just looking oh so depressing and of course on Facebook it felt like everyone had me hidden on their news feed. I didn't get invited to the parties, I didn't get text messages from anyone asking me of my whereabouts, hell even at the bar, the bartenders just seemed annoyed I was there. People are groupies.

But the skills and mindset I have when I am successful was the same skills and mindset I had when I failed. People don't get that, many entrepreneurs fail because either the time isn't right, or we just ran out of resources to tap to keep business going. It's rarely because they didn't know what they were doing. A real entrepreneur will always know what he/she is doing and what he/she needs to do next. It's the resources that typically hinders us.

So when people ask me for advice on their business or how to do things, they're asking the successful me: The me with the gold watch, the LV accessories, and fat wallet. Not the failure me: The bearded man who's too depressed to shave, who spent 12 hours a day researching on how I failed, with less than $100 in my bank.

I'm still the same person and always will be, whether I am rolling in the dough or when I am broke. Difference is, the failure me is stronger and smarter and more hungry, the successful me is teetering on complacent, well fed, comfortable and at times, lazy. Listen to the failure me when you ask questions, not the successful me. Failure me is in the lab, researching, learning new skills, constantly researching, the successful me is on the way to the beach, rounding the night at the bar with a $400 tab. Those who have failed typically give the best advice, they know more about what works and what doesn't, successful folks typically only know what works, that's just half the battle.

I am glad I failed once before, will I fail again? Probably, I don't care, because every time I fail, I just get sharper and more skilled and talented at many things, every time I succeed, I'm typically really good at one thing. I will succeed again, I have already, I am trying to see how many times I can succeed in a row, and for the groupies: a six figure income does not mean success, success means your idea is executed properly to wear your customers are benefiting from whatever it is you created while generating any kind of income while doing it.

Don't be a groupie and miss out on some good advice, listen to both successful people and failures, they both have the same skills and talents that got them where they are.

-The T-Shirt Millionaire