A useful perspective on failure from Arnold Schwarzenegger’s June 25, 2021 newsletter (http://schwarzenegger.com):
“This one wasn’t a question, but I loved this email and wanted to respond:
First of all, you have the right mindset. I have seen so many immigrants with the fire in their belly to move here, and they always seem to make it. Not just me, I’ve met so many people at the gym who moved here. I remember a French guy at the old World Gym who showed up barely speaking English trying to be a personal trainer. He worked his ass off, and a year later, he was pulling up in a Corvette. I have seen this story over and over and over. This is the beauty of America. If you come here ready to hustle, you will find a job. I don’t know how good your English is, but if you’re like me, you can go to a community college to improve it and who knows, you might get a degree like me. I still believe America is the land of opportunity that I found in 1968.
I remember when I was moving to America, I didn’t have anything but a gym bag, and I didn’t know anyone here yet. I was used to not having anything at that point because I had been living in the gym I worked at in Munich, so that gave me an advantage.
I was nervous, but my mind didn’t allow me to think about failure. I was coming to America to compete in the Mr. Universe, and then my goal was to never leave. I didn’t have a Plan B. Plan B was to try harder at Plan A. But you mentioned your fear of failure, so I want you to explore that. The worst thing that can happen if you fail is you’ll be back in Italy. You’ll be where you are right now. You won’t be a loser, you’ll just be living your current life.
I think a lot of people get hung up on a fear of failure because they think about how the people around them will judge them. But if failure just means you’ll be back where you are right now, what’s the fear? You are living your life right now, it can’t be that scary – unless you’re in an abusive situation, where this advice doesn’t apply. I use this mindset a lot. My agents will call about a movie and say “Hey, we don’t know if this deal will come together, the studio is being a real pain in the ass, this is a disaster.” My response is “It isn’t a disaster, I haven’t made this movie yet, and my life is good, so what’s the problem?” If I don’t make this movie, the worst thing that can happen to me is that I’ll just be where I am today.” When I think of failure, I try to ignore what other people will think and only focus on what I can control.
You said that if you fail, you’ll find another way. When you said that, I knew you’d probably succeed. You have your vision. That’s where everything starts. Now you just need to take the next step and put that fear of failure behind you.”
And yes, the T-shirt he’s wearing in the picture is for sale on his website; you should watch the short (less than a minute) promotional video all the way to the end 🙂
