Yesterday afternoon, I entered the business world again with much trepidation. A partner and I pitched an idea to a company with money and resources. I was pathetic!!! I was ill prepared as I did not really know what we wanted. The presentation itself looked great but unfortunately a great presentation sells nothing and just looks pretty! This whole fiasco brought one thing home, there are far more learning’s in failure than in success. Over a beer, my partner and I made many resolutions and changes to our approach. I think we are far wiser than before and certainly more focussed. There is nothing wrong with failure if you have the right attitude! I have also heard it said before that you can make as many mistakes as you want, there is just no excuse for making the same ones twice!

On Sunday we went surfing at a place called Betty’s Bay reef. It is a very shallow rocky and powerful break. The reef is submerged under only a metre of water, it is very shallow. I have surfed there a couple of times in the past and not really enjoyed it. This day was no different! The water was about 14 degrees Celsius, a little chilly, with a fair size wave that was breaking. I got out to the back and found myself cold, shivering and rather unnerved. My mates had an awesome time because if you got past the psychological aspect of shallow rocks, this was a fantastic wave. I floundered around, caught almost nothing and eventually swam back to shore. Here was a classic example of me letting my mind lurk in the ‘I can’t do this’ pity state. I don’t go there often but certainly found that it was not a place that is easy to leave once you are there.

Now for some time, I have been telling my sons that life is all about having the right attitude. My message has been that 90% of anything they do is won or lost in their minds. I am not sure that they fully understand what I am trying to say but they certainly have a new mantra!

Sunday’s insight was that I am telling my children life is all about attitude and I go and fail at something because of my attitude. I felt pretty bad about my new hypocritical status and so when I got home I had a chat with my sons telling them about my failure. I thought that they should know that I can be honest about failing and why I have failed and perhaps that will help them to understand the whole lesson on attitude better. Who knows – we shall see.

So there you go – a whole heap of rantings about my own failures. I seem to have racked up rather a few in a short space of time. Surprisingly enough, I am more excited and inspired than ever to keep on going. There is so much to learn through failure even if it is the very clear understanding that the mind is an incredibly powerful piece of equipment when used correctly and devastating when turned off!