Success Rising Out Of Failure

Al Neuharth, the founder of USA Today, talked about a unique philosophy he had when he came out with his autobiographical book, “Confessions of an S.O.B.” Neuharth said he believed a person needed to fail in order to learn how to succeed.

“Everyone should fail in a big way at least once before they’re forty,” Neuharth said. “The bigger you fail, the bigger you’re likely to succeed later.”

Some might insist this must mean I will be a tremendous success at some point, but that’s a story for another day. I recalled this quote when my 17-year-old son called me last week to talk about an enterprising idea he had that could potentially benefit a lot of people in his life.

To provide a little background first, Paytyn has been a volunteer for a haunted trail near Blanchard each October. The money raised from the trail has been routinely provided to the Bridge Creek band. This particular year, the property that has been used for the trail was being taken away and the organizers of the Halloween event decided to discontinue moving forward this year.

Paytyn, however, chose to go a different direction. He said he wanted to pursue being an organizer of the event – along with one of his friends – and turning it into a for-profit event. He asked me questions about permits and licensure, and how he should move forward.

His idea was to talk to the property owners about reconsidering the use of their land. He said he also wanted to set it up as a business that paid its employees for their work rather than using the proceeds to help fund the band’s operations. Sure, the school band would lose out on some much-needed revenues this year, but that was apparently going to happen anyway.

I offered as much advice as I was capable of giving and then left it in his hands to either make it work or experience its failure. And, the thing is if he does fail, it is my belief that can still be a good thing. His investment is more tied to his time and energy, and the hope is that his overheard will be small. If they don’t make much money, then they can at least know they did their best.

Paytyn already works two jobs in addition to taking his high school courses, playing in the band and taking a college course in preparation for next year. So, it is safe to say this is a significant investment of his time. But more importantly, this is a great learning experience for him, regardless of how it turns out. Something tells me it has a great chance of succeeding (and not just because I handle the marketing and PR work for the cause), but I am most definitely not afraid of him experiencing a failure. Because, as I already mentioned, failure can be a great learning experience.

If there is a setback, my guess is he will learn from it and use that to his advantage as he ventures into something even bigger. And, eventually he will be successful (maybe sooner rather than later) and that will really make everything else worth the effort.