912: Losses Don’t Kill Dreams — Refusing to Learn Does

In this episode, you’ll learn how to turn every loss into a gain. I’ll show you why failing is part of real success, how to profit from your setbacks, and why taking risks is the key to lasting growth. Stop taking losses at face value—start using them to level up.

Transcript

1:30

If a loss yields experience, then it's truly not a loss. And if you can learn from a loss, then you can turn it into a gain. But that depends on what you do with the loss, because if you take a loss at face value, meaning that you just lament on it, you ruminate about it. And you can't wait to tell another soul how much time you wasted. This is where you're gonna stay stuck. If you would spend that same amount of time that you would telling another soul about how much of a victim that you are, if you spent that same amount of time learning from the loss, finding the usable parts, asking questions, not why did this happen? But what happened? What were the disconnects? What were my blind spots? Did I run on emotion and jump in too fast or did I sit down and factor in all possi, uh, all sorts of possibilities. The ranges of possibilities. See, you're not just looking at it just from the high side. What were the low sides too? And can I stomach those losses if I took the loss? Did you do any of that? Probably didn't. You gotta take ownership when you learn from a loss is where you take ownership. Sometimes you gotta be wrong on the way to being right. That's a real deal, man. Be glad that you took the loss. You should be glad because failing is part of the process. It's part of evolving. Gaining wisdom, building skill sets, and developing a real know-how. So be glad that you took the L Man because number one, most importantly, you proved that you're willing to take a risk. You know how many people are terrified? They want a different life. They want things to be different in their life, but they're terrified of that big R. as some people say, that Big R taking the risk, the moment adversity, or uncertainty shows up. They run straight back to comfort. They say they want a better life, but they refuse to risk for it. Lemme tell you something, you can't succeed. Without taking a risk, sure, you may win short term, but I'm talking about success, lasting success because success is a combination of both the wins and the losses. You need the losses to learn how to win higher, and you need the wins to stay hungry enough to keep taking the risk. And be willing to lose. Do I wanna lose? No. Am I willing to take the L? Am I willing to take a loss? Am I willing to take a risk and take the loss? The first question, man, you gotta ask yourself, dude, when I thought about it, I had to put the pen down. When's the last time you took a real risk? Seriously, like, stop right there. Come back to me in a minute. Write down that question and then write it out. Seriously, when's the last time I took a real risk, something that was uncomfortable, something that was uncertain, something where you could fail and be embarrassed, and I'm not talking about some sort of risk that. It causes some sort of collapse in your family or your relationships, but something that stretches you. When's the last time you stepped into that? See, everybody is seeking out certainty. It is, but hear me loud, certainty breeds complacency. The more certain you are, the more you're gonna settle. You're gonna get soft and you're gonna get outta touch. But here's the thing about being outta touch. Being outta touch is like a millimeter outta touch today. When you seek certainty and you don't take the risk, you get outta touch just a little bit. Just a millimeter tomorrow. Same thing over time in, in a day by itself, standalone, no big deal. Over time, very big deal. Huge because it compounds that complacency just a little bit compounds, and one day you wake up totally disconnected, so take the risk. So, have this awareness to start taking risk again, the thing that makes you feel uncomfortable may feel a little foolish, but I'm telling you, man, on the, on the other side, everything that you want is on the other side of fear. Everything that you want is on the other side of the embarrassment, okay? Looking foolish. It's only only temporary. It is only temporary. The thing that stays permanent is that complacency gets worse and worse and worse. That's permanent. But see, you can put that complacency at bay. You can step into the uncertainty. You can handle the adversity. When you have this awareness, be like, fuck it, man. Let's try it. And when you take the L, when you take the loss, remember it's part of the process. Stare down, analyze, adjust, ask what and how. Questions. That's important. What and how? Questions, not why. Why questions make you powerless. Why this happened to me? Why but what questions? How questions, what can I learn from this? How can I do better next time? That's where you're gonna find your power and that's where you're gonna profit from it. Nothing, bro is wasted. Never waste a good crisis calamity or challenge. Never. I tell my salespeople that all the time. Never waste anything. There's always something in sales, there's always something going on. And that's what I love about sales, the profession, is because it teaches us so much about life, we're more equipped to be able to handle life.'cause shit, dude, we walk into crisis calamity or challenges every single day. And we have no choice but to confront it if we want to eat. So even if it feels like that you've wasted your time with one customer, you didn't because lemme tell you something, inside that one customer are five to 10 different unique experiences, unique lessons. One body, you look like one person, but you got 10 to 15 unique experiences. So instead of complaining about it, oh it didn't result. And lemme tell you how I wasted my time. No, I. What can I draw from these things? What are the usable parts? What are things that I should have said? What are some things that I let slide? What are some things that I didn't confront? What are some things that I didn't know the answer to see it? And then what are some things that I did well, you did some good things in there. You handled yourself in certain situations. What were those? But you'll never learn from those things. If all you're doing is complaining, running to tell someone else, and lemme tell you that other person that you're telling is secretly saying while they're staring at you, man, I hate to hear that. They're glad it was you and not them. That's what they're doing. So why fucking even waste your time with that same thing on a project. If you spend days, weeks, months on a project, you give up your weekends on some sort of project. And then the whole damn thing collapses. Maybe it was the wrong project. Maybe you blew it good, because sometimes the long way is the right way because you improved your efficiency. You got sharper. You learn to work with less. You realize you didn't need all the bloated extras that you thought you did. Sometimes your lack becomes leverage the long way. Teaches you more than a shortcut ever could have. And sometimes the experience in the wrong long way you shelf that experience that in the moment today seems like it was a waste of time. A decade from now, you pull that experience because you went the long, wrong way. You pull that experience off the shelf'cause you need it for that moment. It's what life is teaching you. You pull it down and you're like, bro, I'm so glad that happened to me 10 years ago.'cause it's happening for me for my benefit right now. You'll be more equipped when it counts most. So nothing is wasted. Every person who is stuck, who is stalled out. Or who just flat gave up in life. It's because they took the loss at face value. They personalized it instead of analyzed it. And if they would've analyzed it, they would've profited from it. Always profit from everything that you do. Alright, let's get outta here. Keep it simple. Keep it moving. Never settle. Stay tough. Peace.