The Importance Of Failure, According to Will Smith

Do you keep on putting off that dream project because you don’t think you will ever succeed?

Have you always desired to become your boss but you never dared to quit your current job?

In other words, are you afraid of failing?

Here is why you should do the exact opposite of what you're doing and seek failure in your life.

Check out this influential video by Goalcast of Will Smith about failing and be ready to change your mindset for good!

All of the lessons of life are in failure.

In this inspiring video, Will Smith advocates his positive and motivational attitude towards failure.

Even if it goes against human nature, we still need to get comfortable with failure, Smith explains.

Even more so, we have to seek failure, as it's “where all of the lessons are.”

Did you know that successful individuals fail more than they succeed?

The famous actor clarifies his approach using the following example: “You know, when you go to the gym, and you work out, you’re actually seeking failure, you want to take your muscles to the point where you get to failure, because that’s where the adaptation is, that’s where growth is.

Successful people fail a lot, they fail a whole lot more than they succeed, but they extract the lessons from the failure, and they use the energy, and they use the wisdom to come around to the next phase of success.”

That’s right, as the most successful people are the ones who fail the most because they are the ones who try the most. For instance, the greatest masters of classical music such as Beethoven or Mozart have generated hundreds of compositions before coming up with a much smaller number of masterpieces.

As Smith rightly puts it: “You have to live at the edge of your capabilities. You gotta live where you’re almost certain you’re going to fail.”

“Practice is controlled failure; you’re getting to your limit (…) You can’t live that, you can’t do that until you get to the point that all of a sudden your body makes the adjustment and then you can do it.”

By practicing failure, you will get better at recognizing the fields where you need to improve yourself.

So keep Will Smith’s mantra in your mind for future projects: “Fail early, fail often, fail forward”!

Reference: Ideapod