Don't stop at Fail!

"To succeed you must first improve, to improve you must first practice, to practice you must first learn, and to learn you must first fail."
-Wesley Woo

What is it that hits you when you have tried other things and still don't get it quite right but then like turning the switch, you realize what to do. A light-bulb moment. It is one of those moments when you finally internalize something you know on a theoretical level.

It was a moment today when browsing through emails that I realized an important factor could be missing. Perhaps I was missing a step in my personal learning. I have always been taught to Try, Fail, and Adjust. In the military, in business for someone else, and now in business for myself. That is the actions needed to succeed. After looking at the quote above, there may be a forth step. The quote says you must first practice whatever it is you want to be good at. Through practice you learn something, whatever it is. Before you learn to do whatever it is you want to do, you first have to Fail. Once you have gone through the process of Improve, Practice, Learn (Try); you get to the fail part. One has to realize that it is ok to fail. It is ok because it is part of the process. You notice that in the quote, it is listed last, but is actually the first thing that has to be done in order to succeed. Look carefully as it says, "you must 'first' fail. Think of it as a continous circle that never stops. Look down at your wedding ring. It is a symbol of unending love, something that really has no beginning or end. So in that respect, if you want to continually grow, if you want to start to grow, you have to put yourself in the eternal circle. "To succeed you must first improve, to improve you must first practice, to practice you must first learn, and to learn you must first fail", and then you must improve again. Don't stop at Fail!!