“Success consists of going from failure to failure without the loss of enthusiasm.”

– Winston Churchill

About a year ago, I adopted a philosophy of failure and rejection. I have tried to explain it to people with little success. My explanation usually garners a mix of surprise and reproach. To further my learning and growth, I am going to try to map out my philosophy of failure and rejection here.

Most people see failure as the polar opposite of success, and for countless years so did I. I strived for success. Failure hurt, and I avoided it at all costs. Little did I know that avoidance was actually leading me to live a less fulfilling life. I decided to shift my mindset and attempt to accumulate failures and rejections every day. The idea was to get me out of my comfort zone. I would genuinely try to do things I was unqualified for, achieve goals which were out of my reach, and push my limits beyond what seemed reasonable.

Not everything changed overnight, but slowly things became more interesting. I started applying to dream jobs, speaking to more people, working on more daunting projects, all with the goal of failing and being rejected. If I didn’t get rejected or fail at least once a day, I didn’t feel I was fulfilling my potential. If I could get rejected three times a day, I knew I was gaining traction. Successes lost their importance. They simply showed me that I was not pushing my limit far enough.

During that time, I asked for a 30% raise in pay, and failed. But I got 25%. I must have spoken with a hundred women, and I didn’t get a hundred dates, but I got far more than I had not speaking to them. I pitched a blog to my company and started working on what was once only a dream. All of these developments were great, but they were borne of constant failure and rejection. The main difference was that instead of being happy about my successes, I was focused on celebrating my failures. In principle, the only thing that changed was my mindset. The reality of the outcomes was far better than when I was concerned with success.

If you wish to embrace and follow me on the quest for failures and rejections, here are the rules:

– Just move on from success. You do not celebrate success. It is not your goal.

– You have to find at least one opportunity to fail or be rejected every day. Seek it out!

– You celebrate and speak about your failure/rejection.

– You have to give 100%. No slacking or trying to fail, or it isn’t a genuine failure.

– The bigger the risk of failure/rejection, the better. Talk to someone you wouldn’t regularly: meh. Write a novel: yeah!

– If you succeed, take it as an opportunity to push it further next time.

– Chances for failure/rejection are everywhere. If you can’t see them, create them.

– Don’t be satisfied with small/meaningless failures.

– Keep a journal of your failures/rejections.

Now go do something you’ll probably do poorly or would be advised by people not to. How are you going to grow if you keep setting yourself easily attained goals? Everyone has to start their projects the same way they started riding a bike: awkwardly and on a road filled with failure.