We are all failures – at least, all the best of us are. – J.M. Barrie

As a society, what keeps us from creating anything worthwhile?

FEAR.

Rock climbing requires a tremendous amount of focus. You need to keep your emotions in check in the ever present fear of falling to your death. If don’t control your fear, you die. It’s that simple!

For climbers falling isn’t failing, falling is just part of succeeding.

In innovation the idea of failure is being wrong

Compared to business where losing your money and your pride is not the same as losing your life, this seems crazy. Yet, in business where we have so much more freedom to do great things, we still choose to take the safe route. Not innovation, just more of the same…

Innovation is tied to failure, but it’s not tied to death. Why do we fear innovation then?

Think about it, will you lose your life in business? In the short term you might lose comforts, but in the long term what you gain from failure is a sharpened sense of freedom. To do as you wish and not letting others set rules by which you have to operate. Innovation is freedom to do as you wish. Thinking about what you want to see in the world and then going out and creating it, that’s innovation.

A great many people in the history of humanity have pushed fear out of their system and went on to create the world we know see, hear, taste, feel, smell and use. The fear of being wrong, the fear of losing, the fear of rejection. All of these contribute to closing ourselves from the limitless potential each of us has to change the world.

When you learn to accept that fear is present in all of us, a big door will open up and you’ll see the world through a different set of eyes. And when you get to this point, you’ll realize that you don’t have to wait for permission to innovate, you can take matter into your own hands.

UNDERSTAND: Failure is often an idea, not an outcome that stands in the way of successes. The greatest enemy we have as humans is fear. Root it out of your system as soon as you can, attack it. Don’t just do it for you, do it for humanity because we need innovation.

P.S. If you’re serious about ‘taking on your fears’, I recommend you read The 50th Law by Robert Greene and 50 Cent. This book follows 50 Cent’s journey from a drug dealer to the person he is right now, once you read it you’ll see 50 in a whole different light!