PART II OF II
Brad Pedersen is a successful entrepreneur who has learned valuable lessons along the way. He is a longtime ELO supporter, a speaker at ELO Forums, and an ELO Oxford Leadership Program Alumnus. Here is an extract from his recently released book, Startup Santa: A Toymaker’s Tale of 10 Business Lessons Learned from Timeless Toys.
The ancient book of Hebrews defines faith as "the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." I love the interplay between the words "faith" and "hope," as they are intrinsically linked to how we can create a better and brighter future. Faith is having trust that the good that we have witnessed in the past can and will happen again if we are consistent in our actions. Hope is the emotional longing for the yet unseen to become reality.
When a trapeze artist performs in a high-flying act, there’s typically a moment when they must release one bar, "flying" through the air to grasp the arms of another. In the process, they require a great deal of both faith and hope. They have faith that as part of the act, the bar with their companion will continue to swing in cadence as they have seen demonstrated before. They have hope that when they do release from their bar and stretch for the arms of their companion, they will be caught. If they don’t release the bar, they are simply just swinging; another version of the rocking horse syndrome. While they certainly would be playing it safe, they would never show us the incredible possibilities we witness in acts like the Cirque du Soleil.
Likewise, in business, it is easier to simply hang onto our current comfortable bar and just try and maintain our ability to swing. That said, I believe all opportunities have a "best by date"—remember, all racehorses go lame. There comes a time to admit that something has reached its end of life and we need to let go and move on. Only by letting go can we create the space needed to embrace new opportunities. Often, we won’t let go because we confuse failing with being a failure. Failing is part of succeeding and is a normal part of pursuing a path toward success. Failing is getting knocked down, after which we can choose to get up and go again. Being a failure is when we get knocked down and choose to stay down because we have given up hope for the future.
Creating success and significance in our lives is a compounding process that comes as a result of a series of small steps. Confucius famously stated that the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. The child who learns to walk cannot make progress without taking the first few baby steps, falling down, and then building on them step by step. It is literally failing forward.
And that leads us to the second lesson the Etch A Sketch brings us: we don’t get to skip lines. Every beautiful design is created by stacking "line upon line." Children will never stop trying to walk. They will fall, they will scuff their knee, they may cry to a parent, but they will always get back up and try again, using every experience as an opportunity for betterment.
As we become adults, we often find ourselves losing the ability to embrace adversity. Instead, we go out of our way to try and skip the pain, seeking "success without sacrifice." Who could blame us, it’s so much easier to choose safety over risk and comfort over pain.
You may never fail in business to the level that I failed with my original toy company which eventually went bankrupt, but it is important that you are aware that failing in life is inevitable. You will never achieve anything great without experiencing setbacks, hardships, making mistakes, and failing forward. The alternative is what most people do, which is to play it safe and not explore what is possible by pushing the boundaries of their comfort zone. Hopefully, you do not succumb to living a life paralyzed by fear, inadvertently becoming a bystander, and squandering your precious life; in which case you will become a failure by default by never realizing all the potential of the God-given gifts that are within you.
Book excerpt from chapter five, Etch A Sketch of Hope by Brad Pedersen
Get the first chapter & bonus gifts free by visiting StartupSantaBook.com