“Failure is not acceptable.”

How many times have you heard this at work? Maybe it’s your mantra. Or perhaps it’s the approach you’re currently applying as you work towards building your own online business.

“You’ve got to hustle to make money.” 

The Finery Report recently did a survey that found: 

• 83.8% say working overtime to be a regular occurrence
• 69.6% regularly work on weekends. 
• 60.8% feel guilty when they do not put in extra hours at work

This continuous stress can be harmful to both your mental and physical wellbeing. 

Maybe you’re thinking, yes, but this is how I can be successful. 

So let me ask you this. How far are you willing to go to avoid failure?

Think about how the world’s top athletes and the type of rigor and discipline they put themselves through. They train all their lives, pushing their bodies as far as they can physically go to win. 

This “no surrender” hustle and grind mentality has given birth to slogans like:

• “No one trains to get second place.” 
• “Just do it.” 
• “Do or die. There is no try.”

But at what cost? 

Simone Biles’ decision to withdraw from parts of the Tokyo Olympics has shown us that there’s more to winning than a Gold medal. Instead of pushing herself beyond her limits, she decided there were more important things than avoiding failure.

“Embrace the power of non-attainment.” – Adam Kreek, Canadian Olympian

Adam speaks about the happiness you can find in failure when working towards a goal.

During the 2004 Olympics, he was part of the heavily favored Canadian rowing team. They got 5th place. But when asked if they were disappointed in the results, they answered no—the experience they had as a team was amazing. 

Why is his story important to you?

Well, in your quest to build a successful business, there will be many instances where you’ll fail. You can continue to push yourself to the very brink of attaining success. Or you can celebrate those instances and experience the happiness that comes with the journey. 

Take stock of all the milestones you’ve made that wouldn’t have been possible if you simply focused on a win-all or nothing approach. 

Isn’t that a healthier way to look at things?

A big city London lawyer went duck hunting in rural Scotland. He shot and dropped a bird, but it fell into a farmer’s field on the other side of a fence.

As the lawyer climbed over the fence, an elderly farmer drove up on his tractor and asked the lawyer what he was doing.

The lawyer responded, “I shot a duck and it fell into this field, and now I’m going to retrieve it.”

The old farmer replied. “The hell you are.  This is my property, and you’re not coming over here.”

The indignant lawyer replied. “I’m one of the best trial lawyers in the UK, and if you don’t let me get that duck, I’ll sue you and take everything that you own.”

The old farmer smiled and said, “Apparently, you don’t know how we do things in Scotland. We settle small disagreements like this, with the Scottish Three Kick Rule.”

“What is the Scottish Three Kick Rule?” the lawyer asked.

The farmer replied, “Well, first I kick you three times and then you kick me three times, and so on, back and forth, until someone gives up.”

The attorney quickly thought about the proposed contest and decided that he could easily take the old codger. He agreed to abide by the local custom.

The old farmer slowly got down from the tractor and walked up to the city fellow.

His first kick planted the toe of his heavy work boot into the lawyer legs, which dropped him to his knees.

His second kick nearly ripped the nose off his face.

The lawyer was flat on his belly, when the farmer’s third kick to a kidney nearly caused him to give up … but didn’t.

The lawyer summoned every bit of his will and managed to get to his feet and said, “Okay, you old tosser, now it’s my turn.”

The old farmer smiled and said, “Naw, I give up, You can keep the duck!”

A 10-year-old boy was trying to get a report written on birds that had been assigned three months earlier.

Procrastination’s bill had come due, and the boy sat at the kitchen table close to tears.  He was surrounded by paper and pencils and unopened books about birds, immobilized by the hugeness of the task ahead.

The boy’s father sat down beside him, put his arm around his son and said, “Bird by bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird.”

The boy took that single piece of advice and got through his assignment. 

And the incident made such an impression on the boy’s younger sister Anne, that she later used that story as the foundation for an entire book.

Titled, “Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life,” it’s considered one of the best books about writing ever penned, and Lamott has gone onto a distinguished career that includes a Guggenheim Fellowship and an induction into the California Hall of Fame.

You probably never heard of Richard Montanez.

As the son of a Mexican immigrant who never made it past fourth grade, Richard lived with ten siblings in a one-room cinder block house in a migrant labor camp east of Los Angeles.

To help pitch in, the boy picked grapes with his entire family, including his grandfather.

He took other odd jobs such as washing cars, picking weeds and slaughtering chickens.

Eventually, Montañez landed a job as a janitor with Frito-Lay, the snack food giant.  He needed help filling out the application because he couldn’t read or write. 

For the next decade the young man was determined to become the best damn janitor Frito-Lay ever had. He operated under a single piece of advice from his grandfather: “Make sure that floor shines and let them know that a Montañez mopped it.”

One day, the CEO at Frito-Lay issued a video encouraging every employee to start behaving like an owner.

When one of the assembly line machines broke and some Cheetos were left bare of any cheese powder, Richard brought some home with him and decided to experiment.

With the help of his wife, he dusted them with the same sort of chili powder he had seen a street vendor use on a popular style of grilled corn known as elote.

After testing the flavor with his family, Montañez first pitched the idea to former PepsiCo CEO Roger Enrico over the phone and was given two weeks to prepare a presentation to the executive suite.

So Richard went to the library and checked out books about marketing and business strategies. He purchased his first-ever necktie for $3. He filled 100 plastic baggies with his concoction, sealed them with a clothing iron, and drew his own logo and design on every single package.

During the presentation an executive asked, “How much market share do you think you can get?”

Trying not to feel out of his depth, Richard replied by stretching his arms out and saying: “THIS much market share!”

The CEO had heard enough.

And now you know the story of the Flamin’ Hot Cheeto, a snack that would go on to become a multi-billion dollar asset for Frito-Lay.

Today, Montañez is the vice president of multicultural sales for PepsiCo America and has been called the Godfather of Multicultural Marketing.

So, whatever you do… do it with utmost honesty and devotion. It never fails!

High in the mountains lived a wise old man.

Periodically, he ventured down into the local village to entertain the villagers with his special knowledge and talents. One of his skills was to psychically tell the villagers the contents in their pockets, boxes, or minds.

A boy from the village decided to play a joke on the wise old man and discredit his special abilities.

The young man came up with an elaborate plan to capture a butterfly and hide it in his hands.

He knew that the monk would know what he was holding. But the boy planned to then ask the old man if the butterfly was dead or alive. If the wise man said the butterfly was alive, the boy would crush it in his hands, so that when he opened his hands the butterfly would be dead.

But, If the wise man said the butterfly was dead, the boy would open his hands and let it fly free.

No matter what the old man said, the boy would prove the old man a fraud.

The following week the monk came down the mountain into the village and along the way, villagers lined up to ask him their most difficult questions.

The boy showed up and asked, “Sir, if indeed you are as wise and talented as everyone believes you are, please tell me whether the butterfly in my hand is dead or alive.”

For a moment it appeared as if the monk was at a loss for words. The student thought he had cornered the wise old monk.

After a pause, the monk looked straight at the boy, and then down at his closed fist. He slowly shook his head from side to side.

“Son,” he said, “whether the butterfly is dead or alive, is entirely in your hands. It’s yours to choose.”

Your life is in your own hands, just like the butterfly. What will you do with it?

Raam Anand
Chief Editor & Publisher
Stardom Books (USA/India)

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