Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Seth Godin: early failure is "merely a step along the way"

Seth Godin posted on his blog about his first public speaking experience, a failure:

Forty years ago today was my first bout of speaking in front of an audience. (And as I remember it, I approached it as a fight, not an opportunity.) I was distracted, nervous and not particularly well received.

It was an epic fail. Friends and relatives agreed that I wasn't engaged or engaging, certainly a performance not to be repeated.

I ignored the part about not repeating it, but I definitely learned some valuable lessons about confidence and engagement.

Just about anything worth doing is worth doing better, which means, of course, that (at least at first) there will be failure. That's not a problem (in the long run), it's merely a step along the way.

This reminds me of the quote from Indiana University's Dean Shepherd: "failure is not the opposite of success."

[Hat tip Elizabeth Sosnow.]

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