If you knew you couldn’t fail

Author’s note: Welcome to Edition 06. I write about what you would do if you knew you couldn’t fail. Please reply to my email or comment here with unflinchingly honest feedback. I also write a newsletter with commentary on how businesses make money. Newsletter link here.

First up, your conversations would change. The way you talk to yourself about your dreams would flip overnight. No longer would you shy away from your vision. You would not restrain your thoughts because of the real world. Your belief would grow tenfold and your life would expand in proportion.

All of this because failure is not an option. Editing the variable of failure from your choices radically expands your field of vision. Risk-adjusted outcomes are irrelevant. Every outcome is achievable and its extent is only determined by your beliefs. You cannot be convinced otherwise.

Your passion is not tempered to fit situations. It can be fully exhausted in pursuit of big and small opportunities. In fact, pursuing every wanton opportunity builds greater confidence. Your reservoir of belief deepens with every success and your energy is replenished. You would only tire if you chased an opportunity and the outcome was lacklustre.

Nothing can drain your energy with deterministic outcomes. You can work without inhibitions and achieve what you want. Every day you make the choice to show up and get rewarded. Your life is incomparable and vision is unmatchable.

Believing that everything is in your favour changes your life. You don’t talk yourself out of opportunities. You talk to people and change minds like you never have. Every option opens up in life and your pursuit is unimpeded. You can be your best self without seeking permission.

This ideal life lies behind a simple belief. If you believe you cannot fail, you will do everything to succeed. The odds are hypothetical and only relevant for storytelling purposes. Your efforts cannot be downsized. Your vision is intractable because you do not believe in anything else. Your life is glorious because there is nothing else.

On the contrary, if you believe you can fail, you always will. You may taste success but you know that failure will eventually wipe out everything. You will never know what it feels to win 6 NBA championships like Michael Jordan because you cannot even imagine being a professional sportsperson. Your belief is stunted before you can visualise what is possible. You believe in fleeting success and lasting failure.

You distract easily because you only chase opportunities with high odds of success. You move from one to the other and to the next because you fear failure. In doing so, you exhaust yourself and wind up at the same place closer to failure than to success. This belief in inevitable failure makes you devalue success and diminish your achievements. Your vision for life shrinks with the looming spectre of failure.

This is no way to live life. This belief in failure is a self-fulfilling prophecy. On the other side of the coin, belief in success is also a self-fulfilling prophecy. If you have to choose, push yourself towards the inevitability of success. Always remember, what would you do if you knew you couldn’t fail, and act with determination.