In a perfect world, you would not be reading me; you would be reading about me. What you would read is that I was the first inductee into three sports halls of fame — representing the most noteworthy athletes who competed in football, basketball and baseball.
What you would read would mention that my feat not only was unprecedented; it was highly unlikely, given that I never topped 5 feet, 10 inches in height, never weighed more than 150 pounds in my prime, never ran faster than a 5.0 in the 40-yard dash — but actually DID touch the basketball rim once, in college. Yeah, the short, skinny, slow kid had him some hops.
Actually, I wasn’t a terrible athlete, back in the day. I just wasn’t a very good player. How could both be true? It’s simple: I was afraid to fail. Consequently, I rarely succeeded, at least to the point that I gave my coaches pause to reconsider why they should let the short, skinny, slow kid with some hops have more playing time.
Looking back, that is one of my few regrets in life, the failure to get over the fear of failure hump. Eventually, when I matured, I became something of a prolific player, if being one of the better players on a 45-and-older softball team can qualify in any fashion as prolific. The difference between now and then is easily discerned: I simply don’t worry about not succeeding.
I recently read a blog post about this very subject, specifically as it pertains to business success and failure. Did you know that the average self-made millionaire files for bankruptcy, or comes close to filing for bankruptcy 3.2 times in his life?
And I bet he never even touched the basketball rim.
-- Yale
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